Neutron knockout in neutral-current neutrino-oxygen interactions

Abstract

The ongoing and future searches for diffuse supernova neutrinos and sterile neutrinos carried out with large water-Cherenkov detectors require a precise determination of the backgrounds, especially those involving gamma rays. Of great importance, in this context, is the process of neutron knockout through neutral-current scattering of atmospheric neutrinos on oxygen. Nuclear reinteractions of the produced neutron may in fact lead to the production of gamma rays of energies high enough to mimic the processes of interest. In this Letter, we focus on the kinematical range suitable for simulations of atmospheric-neutrino interactions and provide the neutron-knockout cross sections computed using the formalism based on realistic nuclear spectral function. The role of the strange-quark contribution to the neutral-current axial form factor is also analyzed. Based on the available experimental information, we give an estimate of the associated uncertainty.

6 pages, 3 figures, the numerical results are provided in a tabulated form in the ancillary file

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• Neutral current quasielastic (anti)neutrino scattering beyond the Fermi gas model at MiniBooNE and BNL kinematics
• Implementation and investigation of electron-nucleus scattering in the \textsc{NEUT} neutrino event generator
• Measurement of $\gamma$-rays generated by neutron interaction with ${}^{16}$O at 30 MeV and 250 MeV
• Quasi-Elastic Neutrino Reactions on Carbon and Lead Nuclei