Measurement of Neutrino-Induced Neutral-Current Coherent $\ddot{I}{€}^0$ Production in the NOvA Near Detector

Abstract

The cross section of neutrino-induced neutral-current coherent $\ddot{I}{€}^0$ production on a carbon-dominated target is measured in the NOvA near detector. This measurement uses a narrow-band neutrino beam with an average neutrino energy of 2.7\,GeV, which is of interest to ongoing and future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. The measured, flux-averaged cross section is $\ddot{I}ƒ=13.8\pm 0.9(\text{stat})\pm 2.3(\text{syst})\times 10^{-40}{\text{cm}}^2/\text{nucleus}$, consistent with model prediction. This result is the most precise measurement of neutral-current coherent $\ddot{I}{€}^0$ production in the few-GeV neutrino energy region.