Extraction of the axial mass parameter from MiniBooNE neutrino quasielastic double differential cross-section data

The recently published [A. A. Aguilar-Arevalo (MiniBooNE Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 81, 092005 (2010)] MiniBooNE charge current quasielastic double differential cross-section data are analyzed and compared with simulations based on two nuclear models: Fermi gas model and spectral function model. In both cases the axial mass parametr M-A is obtained from a fitting procedure which takes into account the multiplicative factor in the uncertainty of the flux. Bins with large (> 50%) contribution from events with small momentum transfer (q < q(cut)) are eliminated from the analysis. More restrictive cuts result in smaller fitted M-A values. The q(cut) = 500 MeV/c leads to the value of M-A = 1350 +/- 66 MeV in the Fermi gas model and M-A = 1343 +/- 60 MeV in the spectral function model. In both cases the value of M-A = 1030 MeV is excluded at the confidence level greater than 5 sigma.