Pion production in high-energy neutrino reactions with nuclei

Abstract

Background: A quantitative understanding of neutrino interactions with nuclei is needed for precision era neutrino long baseline experiments (MINOS, NOvA, DUNE) which all use nuclear targets. Pion production is the dominant reaction channel at the energies of these experiments.Purpose: Investigate the influence of nuclear effects on neutrino-induced pion production cross sections and compare predictions for pion-production with available data.Method: The Giessen Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (GiBUU) model is used for the description of all incoherent channels in neutrino-nucleus reactions.Results: Differential cross sections for charged and neutral pion production for the MINERνA neutrino and antineutrino flux are calculated. An estimate for the coherent cross section is obtained from a comparison of data with theoretical results for incoherent cross sections. The invariant mass (W ) distribution of the ∆ resonances produced is analyzed. Conclusions:Final state interactions affect the pion kinetic energy spectra significantly. The data for charged pion production at MINERνA are compatible with the results of calculations using elementary data taken from an old Argonne National Laboratory experiment. Remaining differences for charged pion production can be attributed to coherent production; the data for antineutrino induced neutral pion production, where no coherent contribution is present, are reproduced quite well. The analysis of W -distributions shows that sharp cuts on experimentally reconstructed invariant masses lead to shape-distortions of the true W distributions for nuclear targets. * Contact

Constraining the GENIE model of neutrino-induced single pion production using reanalyzed bubble chamber data

“…Experimental data on nuclear targets presents a confusing picture, with a e-mail: callum.wilkinson@lhep.unibe.ch recent data from the MINERνA [1,2] and MiniBooNE [3] experiments in poor agreement with each other in the framework of current theoretical models [4,5]. An additional problem is the disagreement between measurements of the neutrino-nucleon single pion production cross section in the 100 MeV to few-GeV energy range most relevant for current and planned neutrino oscillation experiments.…”

“…The Q 2 predictions shown are therefore shape-only, but with the relative normalization between the different pion production channels preserved. 5 All data considered have no invariant mass cuts applied and the event selection in GENIE is based on the particles produced at the initial interaction vertex, not those surviving GENIE's FSI model as previously discussed. In Figs.…”

Cross sections forνμandν¯μinduced pion production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA

“…Comparisons were made with generator predictions, and trends involving final-state interactions of the pions within the target carbon nuclei were identified. These measurements have also been compared to a phenomenological treatment of neutrino-induced pion production carried out within the GiBUU transport theoretical framework [7].…”

Pion Production in Wroclaw Neutrino Event Generator and its Comparison with Other Generators

“…It is somehow disconcerting, since at this particular energy range (∆(1232) peak) the pion production and nuclear effects are quite well established. This indicates, that something may be amiss in the experimental analysis (e. g. [45] and [37]). …”

“…A comprehensive review can be found in [4], whereas the most recent paper about pion neutrinoproduction in GiBUU is [37]. The nuclear ground state is treated as a local relativistic Fermi gas of nucleons.…”