Measurement of the muon neutrino charged-current single π+ production on hydrocarbon using the T2K off-axis near detector ND280

Abstract

We report the measurements of the single and double differential cross section of muon neutrino charged-current interactions on carbon with a single positively charged pion in the final state at the T2K offaxis near detector using 5.56 × 10 20 protons on target. The analysis uses data control samples for the background subtraction and the cross section signal, defined as a single negatively charged muon and a single positively charged pion exiting from the target nucleus, is extracted using an unfolding method. The model-dependent cross section, integrated over the T2K off-axis neutrino beam spectrum peaking at 0.6 GeV, is measured to be σ ¼ ð11.76 AE 0.44ðstatÞ AE 2.39ðsystÞÞ × 10 −40 cm 2 nucleon −1. Various differential cross sections are measured, including the first measurement of the Adler angles for single charged pion production in neutrino interactions with heavy nuclei target.

Inclusive and exclusive neutrino-nucleus cross sections and the reconstruction of the interaction kinematics

“…Nevertheless and despite the large correlations, the evidence is weak, given the flat behavior of the ratio and the large errors. Similar low cross-section predictions were also observed in the T2K CC1π results [14]. The impact of the possible CC1π miss-modelling is minimised in the case of CC0π where the contribution of CC1π becomes as the same level than CC 2p2h, see table 6.…”

“…The value of E IA m becomes negative (non-physical) for some values of T N when, as it is common, the T F correction is not added. 4 Equivalently, the problem is caused by the wrong assumption of taking The average E IA m is 28 MeV, very similar to the binding energies used in RGFG models (25 MeV) [14] or in MINERvA (27.13 MeV) [15]. 5 In addition, we can use this average of E IA m for the LFG model in carbon, to estimate the average of the excitation energy A−1 ∼ T F − T N ∼ 11 MeV for this target, using S n + (m p − m n ) = 17.4 MeV.…”

“…The resonant pion production is based on the Rein-Sehgal model [22], taking into account eighteen resonances with masses below 2 GeV and their interference terms, with the axial mass fixed to M RES A = 1.21 GeV. This model has been compared to experimental data by the T2K collaboration showing remarkable agreement [14]. Neutral current and charged current coherent pion production is simulated using the Rein-Sehgal model in ref.…”

Selecting Charged Current Muon Neutrino Interactions on Argon with the Short-Baseline Near Detector

“…T2K has also measured differential CC1π + cross sections on hydrocarbon [119]. The hydrocarbon pion production data appears to be overestimated by the cross section models [119] in a similar way to the MINERvA data, but the exact model configurations are unlikely to be the same and a simultaneous analysis of all three data sets is yet to be performed. There is still room for improvement in both the modelling and measurements of pion production [59].…”

First combined measurement of the muon neutrino and antineutrino charged-current cross section without pions in the final state at T2K

“…In previous analyses, the selection criteria were optimized to select forward going muons (with respect to the beam direction) originating from FGDs [14,15,[66][67][68]. For this analysis, the phase space of the muon kinematics was enlarged, including also high-angle and backward-going tracks.…”