Two different nuclear-medium effects are isolated using a low three-momentum transfer subsample of neutrino-carbon scattering data from the MINERvA neutrino experiment. The observed hadronic energy in charged-current νµ interactions is combined with muon kinematics to permit separation of the quasielastic and ∆(1232) resonance processes. First, we observe a small cross section at very low energy transfer that matches the expected screening effect of long-range nucleon correlations. Second, additions to the event rate in the kinematic region between the quasielastic and ∆ resonance processes are needed to describe the data. The data in this kinematic region also has an enhanced population of multi-proton final states. Contributions predicted for scattering from a nucleon pair have both properties; the model tested in this analysis is a significant improvement but does not fully describe the data. We present the results as a double-differential cross section to enable further investigation of nuclear models. Improved description of the effects of the nuclear environment are required by current and future neutrino oscillation experiments.

No abstract

This is a study to identify predicted effects of the carbon nucleus environment on neutrino-nucleus interactions with low momentum transfer. A large sample of neutrino interaction data collected by the MINERvA experiment is analyzed to show the distribution of charged hadron energy in a region with low momentum transfer. These distributions reveal a major discrepancy between the data and a popular interaction model with only the simplest Fermi gas nuclear effects. Detailed analysis of systematic uncertainties due to energy scale and resolution can account for only a little of the discrepancy. Two additional nuclear model effects, a suppression/screening effect (RPA), and the addition of a meson exchange current process (MEC), are shown to improve the description of the data.