Charged current inclusive neutrino-nucleus cross sections are evaluated using the superscaling model for quasielastic scattering and its extension to the pion production region. The contribution of two-particle-two-hole vector meson-exchange current excitations is also considered within a fully relativistic model tested against electron scattering data. The results are compared with the inclusive neutrino-nucleus data from the T2K and SciBooNE experiments. For experiments where Eν ∼ 0.8 GeV, the three mechanisms considered in this work provide good agreement with the data. However, when the neutrino energy is larger, effects from beyond the ∆ also appear to be playing a role. The results show that processes induced by two-body currents play a minor role at the kinematics considered.

We show that the quasielastic (QE) response calculated with the SuSAv2 (superscaling approach) model, that relies on the scaling phenomenon observed in the analysis of (e, e ′ ) data and on the relativistic mean-field theory, is very similar to that from a relativistic distorted wave impulse approximation model when only the real part of the optical potentials is employed. The coincidence between the results from these two completely independent approaches, which satisfactorily agree with the inclusive data, reinforces the reliability of the quasielastic predictions stemming from both models and sets constraints for the QE response. We also study the low energy and momentum transfer region of the inclusive response by confronting the results of the relativistic mean-field model with those of the Hartree-Fock continuum random-phase approximation model, which accounts for nuclear long-range correlations. Finally, we present a comparison of our results with the recent JLab (e, e ′ ) data for argon, titanium and carbon, finding good agreement with the three data sets.

The super-scaling approach (SuSA) model, based on the analogies between electron and neutrino interactions with nuclei, is reviewed and its application to the description of neutrino-nucleus scattering is presented. The contribution of both one- and two-body relativistic currents is considered. The model is validated with the $$(e,e')$$ ( e , e ′ ) data, including also inelastic contributions for the inclusive reaction. A discussion of semi-inclusive reactions and their implications for charge-changing reactions of neutrinos is also presented. A selection of results for the inclusive neutrino reactions with change of charge is presented where theoretical predictions are compared with cross-section measurements from the main ongoing neutrino oscillation experiments.

The difference between electron and muon neutrino charged-current cross sections has attracted quite some interest over the past few years. This interest is guided by the experimental effort that aims at measuring the CP-violating phase by looking for electron (anti-)neutrino appearance in (anti-)muon neutrino beams [1]. In long-baseline experiments such as T2K, models for the neutrino cross section are often constrained by near-detector data, with a muon neutrino flux that is unoscillated. Non-trivial differences between electron and muon neutrino cross sections are currently experimentally not well constrained, and different models give varying results, especially in kinematic regions where nuclear structure details become important, i.e. for low energy and momentum transfers [2,3]. In this work we present the nuclear response and cross section using different nuclear models, for forward lepton scattering in the region of E ν of a couple 100 MeVs. In this kinematic region the cross section is sensitive to nuclear structure details which are not accounted for in simplified models such as the relativistic Fermi gas (RFG) which is commonly used in the experimental analyses. The results show that it is important for current and future accelerator-based experiments, notably T2K [1] and the short-baseline oscillation program (i.e the MicroBooNE, SBND and ICARUS experiments) which are sensitive to the several 100 MeV region, to take nuclear structure details into account in their analyses.The 21st international workshop on neutrinos from accelerators (NuFact2019) August 26 -August 31, 2019 Daegu, Korea * Speaker.

Recent progresses on the relativistic modeling of neutrino-nucleus reactions are presented and the results are compared with high precision experimental data in a wide energy range.