Probing Neutrino-Energy Reconstruction with New Superscaling-Based Observables

Abstract

In this study, we explore the superscaling variable ${\psi }^{\prime }$ within the context of neutrino-nucleus charged-current quasielastic interactions. Building on the neutrino-oriented definition of the superscaling variable ${\psi }^{\prime }$, we reparametrize it in terms of the neutrino-energy reconstruction bias, thereby establishing a direct conceptual and analytical connection between the superscaling formalism and neutrino-energy reconstruction. This approach allows the hadronic part of the reconstructed ${\psi }^{\prime }$ to be expanded around the quasielastic point, yielding new observables that depend only on the outgoing-muon kinematics. At the same time, the resulting distributions remain sensitive to the underlying nuclear dynamics and vary across nuclear models. Among them, a newly identified quantity $L_1$, constructed solely from the outgoing-muon kinematics, provides a nuclear-physics constraint on the neutrino-energy reconstruction bias. This observable largely inherits the scaling properties of ${\psi }^{\prime }$ across different neutrino fluxes and nuclear targets. The nuclear-model dependence is investigated using ND280-like ${\nu }_{\mu }$ and ${\bar{\nu }}_{\mu }$ Monte Carlo samples on carbon, generated with several nuclear models implemented in NEUT, NuWro, and GENIE, while the stability across experimental conditions is tested using additional carbon- and argon-based flux-target configurations.