The interest in studies of neutrino-nucleus interactions goes beyond the study of the intrinsic properties of the neutrino extending to a variety of topics in astro-, nuclear and hadronic physics. We report in this paper the results of the calculations of the cross sections of inelastic neutrino-nucleus scattering off 116 Cd, focusing on the incoherent neutral-current and charged-current processes, at energies typical of supernova neutrinos. The required nuclear wave functions for the participant initial and final states are constructed using the quasiparticle random-phase approximation in its charge-conserving mode and charge-changing mode. The response of 116 Cd to supernova neutrinos and antineutrinos is computed by folding the computed cross sections with the assumed Fermi-Dirac distribution of the neutrino energies.

In this work we present computed cross sections for the incoherent neutral-current neutrino scattering off the stable cadmium isotopes. The main focus is on supernova neutrinos. The nuclear states of the even-mass and odd-mass cadmium isotopes have been constructed using the quasiparticle random-phase approximation and the microscopic quasiparticle-phonon model, respectively. The computed cross sections are folded with suitably parametrized Fermi–Dirac distributions of the supernova (anti)neutrinos energies to obtain realistic estimates of the nuclear responses to these neutrinos.

We perform calculations of the cross sections for charged-current neutrino and antineutrino scattering off 116 Cd using ten different Skyrme interactions, at energies typical of supernova neutrinos. We use the quasiparticle random-phase approximation in its charged-changing mode (pnQRPA) to construct the required nuclear wave functions for the participant initial and final states. We compare the results of these calculations with the results of calculations based on the Bonn one-boson-exchange potential. The response of 116 Cd to supernova neutrinos is calculated by folding the obtained cross sections with suitably parametrized Fermi-Dirac distributions of the electron-neutrino and electron-antineutrino energies.

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The present study is a continuation of our previous work (2015 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 42 025106) on neutral-current supernova-neutrino processes in the stable cadmium isotopes. Here we concentrate on the charged-current scattering processes of neutrinos off the stable cadmium isotopes covering an energy range characteristic of supernova neutrinos. As a theory framework we adopt the quasiparticle random-phase approximation in its charge-changing mode (pnQRPA) and the microscopic quasiparticle-phonon model to construct the required nuclear wave functions of the odd–odd and odd–even isobars of the stable even–even reference cadmium isotopes, respectively. The cross sections of the charged-current neutrino and antineutrino scatterings off the stable cadmium isotopes are subsequently computed. The nuclear responses to supernova neutrinos are also estimated by folding the cross sections with neutrino-energy spectra including the effects of matter oscillations within an effective two-neutrino framework. The calculations indicate that the folded cross sections have mass-number dependencies that are different for neutrinos and antineutrinos, and that odd-mass nuclei have relatively large cross sections. The matter oscillations affect the cross sections strongly and it is found that the computed averaged cross sections for antineutrinos differ notably for the normal/inverted mass hierarchy. This could have interesting consequences for the experimental solution of the mass-hierarchy problem in future large-scale neutrino telescopes.