Quasi-Elastic Neutrino Reactions on Carbon and Lead Nuclei

Abstract

We examine neutral-current quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus reactions on ${}^{12}$C and ${}^{208}$Pb targets. We use the relativistic mean field theory approach to describe the nuclear dynamics. We compute the cross sections for the scattering of 150-MeV, 500-MeV and 1000-MeV neutrinos on a ${}^{12}$C target and study the effect of the strange-quark content of the nucleon which appears in these reactions via the isoscalar weak current. We compare our results with the data of the MiniBooNE experiment for mineral oil (CH${}_2$). We also calculate the cross section for the quasi-elastic neutron knockout reaction of 20 to 60-MeV neutrinos on a ${}^{208}$Pb target which is relevant to plans to use lead as a target material in future supernova neutrino detectors.

28 pages, 14 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Supernova Neutrino Detection
• The Deuteron Spin-dependent Structure Function g1d and its First Moment
• CP Violation and Neutrino Oscillations
• Superscaling and neutral current quasielastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Analysis of flux-integrated cross sections for quasi-elastic neutrino charged-current scattering off ${}^{12}$C at MiniBooNE energies
• Neutrino-nucleus quasi-elastic scattering and strange quark effects
• Seagull and pion-in-flight currents in neutrino-induced $1N$ and $2N$ knockout
• Neutrino neutral-current elastic scattering on 12C
• Consistent analysis of neutral- and charged-current neutrino scattering off carbon
• Detecting supernova neutrinos with iron and lead detectors
• Strangeness content of the nucleon in quasielastic neutrino-nucleus reactions
• Estimate of the theoretical uncertainty of the cross sections for nucleon knockout in neutral-current neutrino-oxygen interactions
• Neutral current quasielastic (anti)neutrino scattering beyond the Fermi gas model at MiniBooNE and BNL kinematics
• Neutrino magnetic moment in a magnetized plasma