☆ 4.5 Article

Neutrino energy reconstruction in quasielastic-like scattering in the MiniBooNE and T2K experiments

PHYSICAL REVIEW C (2012)

Journal

PHYSICAL REVIEW C

Volume 86, Issue 5, Pages -

Publisher

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.86.054606

Keywords

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DFG
BMBF
HIC
FAIR

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Abstract

Background: Neutrino oscillation probabilities, which are being measured in long-baseline experiments, depend on neutrino energy. The energy in a neutrino beam, however, is broadly smeared so that the neutrino energy in a particular event is not directly known, but must be reconstructed from final state properties. Purpose: To investigate the effects of different reaction mechanisms on the energy-reconstruction method widely used in long-baseline neutrino experiments taking also pion production into account, and to clarify how the oscillation signal depends on the energy reconstruction. Methods: The Giessen Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (GiBUU) transport model is used for a detailed study of neutrino-nucleus events. Results: The difference between the true-QE and QE-like cross sections in the MiniBooNE experiment is investigated in detail. It is shown that fake QE-like events lead to significant distortions in neutrino energy reconstruction. Flux-folded and unfolded cross sections for QE-like scattering are calculated as functions of both true and reconstructed energies. Flux-folded momentum transfer distributions are calculated as functions of both true and reconstructed momentum transfer. Distributions versus reconstructed values are compared with the experimental data. Also presented are the conditional probability densities of finding a true energy for a given reconstructed energy. We show how the energy-reconstruction procedure influences the measurement of oscillation parameters in T2K experiments. Conclusions: For the reconstruction procedure based on quasielastic (QE) kinematics all other reaction channels besides true-QE scattering show a shift of the reconstructed energy towards lower values as compared to the true energy. In the MiniBooNE and T2K experiments this shift is about 100-200 MeV and depends on energy. The oscillation signals are similarly affected. These uncertainties may limit the extraction of a CP violating phase from an oscillation result.

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Quasielastic charged-current neutrino-nucleus scattering with nonrelativistic nuclear energy density functionals

K. S. Kim, Hana Gil, Chang Ho Hyun

Summary: Charged-current neutrino-nucleus scattering in the quasielastic region is investigated using the KIDS nuclear energy density functional. Uncertainties arising from the axial mass and in-medium effective mass of the nucleon are examined. By comparing with experimental data, constraints on the axial mass and effective mass compatible with the data are obtained. The total cross section is found to be insensitive to the effective mass, allowing for the determination of the axial mass independently of the effective mass uncertainty. Differential cross sections at different kinematics, however, are sensitive to both the effective mass and axial mass. Within the uncertainty range of the axial mass constrained by the total cross section, the dependence on the effective mass is examined. As a result, the axial mass and effective mass consistent with the experimental data are obtained.

PHYSICS LETTERS B (2022)