Reaction Mechanisms at MINER$\nu$A

Abstract

The MINER$\nu$A experiment investigates neutrino interactions with nucleons needed for an understanding of electroweak interactions of hadrons. Since nuclear targets are being used many-body effects may affect the extracted cross sections and the energy reconstruction. The latter is essential for the extraction of neutrino oscillation properties. We investigate the influence of nuclear effects on neutrino interaction cross sections and make predictions for charged current quasielastic (QE) scattering, nucleon-knock-out and pion- and kaon-production on a CH target. The Giessen Boltzmann--Uehling--Uhlenbeck (GiBUU) model is used for the description of neutrino-nucleus reactions. Integrated and differential cross sections for inclusive neutrino scattering, QE processes and particle production for the MINER$\nu$A neutrino flux are calculated. The influence of final state interactions on the identification of these processes is discussed. In particular, energy and $Q^2$ reconstruction for the MINER$\nu$A flux are critically examined. The $Q^2$ dependence of the inclusive cross sections is found to be sensitive to the energy reconstruction. Cut-offs in flux distributions have a large effect. Final state interactions affect the pion kinetic energy spectra significantly and increase the kaon cross sections by cross feeding from other channels.

Discussion of results on QE enhanced. Added data in Fig. 5. Version close to one being published in Phys. Rev. D

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• Measurement of Neutrino-Induced Charged-Current Charged Pion Production Cross Sections on Mineral Oil at E${}_{\nu }\sim 1\text{GeV}$
• One pion production in neutrino reactions: including non-resonant background
• Impact of nuclear effects on the extraction of neutrino oscillation parameters
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• Neutral current neutrino-nucleus interactions at intermediate energies
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• Charged Pion Production in ${\nu }_{\mu }$ Interactions on Hydrocarbon at $⟨E_{\nu }⟩$= 4.0 GeV
• Neutrino-nucleus interactions and the determination of oscillation parameters
• Electron- versus neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Measurement of ${\nu }_{\mu }$ charged-current single ${\pi }^0$ production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA
• Sensitivity of Neutrino-Nucleus Interaction Measurements to 2p2h Excitations
• Muon-neutrino-induced charged current pion production on nuclei
• Pion Production in High-Energy Neutrino Reactions with Nuclei
• Measurement of $K^{+}$ production in charged-current ${\nu }_{\mu }$ interactions
• Inclusive cross section measurements in final states with and without protons for charged-current ${\nu }_{\mu }$-Ar scattering in MicroBooNE
• The relativistic Green's function model in charged-current quasielastic neutrino and antineutrino scattering at MINER$\nu$A kinematics
• First simultaneous measurement of differential muon-neutrino charged-current cross sections on argon for final states with and without protons using MicroBooNE data
• Charged-current quasielastic scattering of muon antineutrino and neutrino in the MINERvA experiment
• Charged-current quasielastic neutrino scattering from ${}^{12}$C in an extended superscaling model with two-nucleon emission
• Quasielastic hyperon production in ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }-$Nucleus interactions
• Comparison of the ANP model with the data for neutrino induced single pion production from the MiniBooNE and MINER$\nu$A experiments
• Neutrino-Nucleus scattering in the SuSA model