Charged pion production inνμinteractions on hydrocarbon at⟨Eν⟩=4.0 

Abstract

Charged pion production via charged-current νµ interactions on plastic scintillator (CH) is studied using the MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI wideband neutrino beam at Fermilab. Events with hadronic invariant mass W < 1.4 GeV and W < 1.8 GeV are selected in separate analyses: the lower W cut isolates single pion production, which is expected to occur primarily through the ∆(1232) resonance, while results from the higher cut include the effects of higher resonances. Cross sections as functions of pion angle and kinetic energy are compared to predictions from theoretical calculations and generator-based models for neutrinos ranging in energy from 1.5-10 GeV. The data are best described by calculations which include significant contributions from pion intranuclear rescattering. These measurements constrain the primary interaction rate and the role of final state interactions in pion production, both of which need to be well understood by neutrino oscillation experiments.

Measurement of ν¯μ charged-current single π− production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA

“…[42]. Additional details concerning GENIE modeling of CC(π) channels are given in MINERvA publications [11][12][13]. Recent developments in neutrino phenomenology motivate certain augmentations to GENIE that are implemented via event reweighting and by adding a simulated sample of quasielastic-like 2-particle 2-hole (2p2h) events [44].…”

“…The effective cascade approach works well with relatively low-A nuclei such as carbon and oxygen. Its predictions give good descriptions of FSI distortions observed in pion distributions by MINERvA studies of CC single pion production [10][11][12][13].…”

“…These differential cross sections complement and extend MIN-ERvA's previously reported measurements of CC pion production on hydrocarbon. The latter measurements includeν µ -induced CC(1π 0 ) production [10,11], and ν µinduced CC(π + ) and CC(1π 0 ) production [11][12][13].…”

Pion-proton correlation in neutrino interactions on nuclei

“…Their experimental evidence is the otherwise unaccounted for measured excess of event rates [8,9]. Complementary to the 0π topology, pion production [10,11] has provided important constraints on both primary pion production and pion FSIs (cf. for example, Ref.…”

Measurement of the muon antineutrino double-differential cross section for quasielastic-like scattering on hydrocarbon atEν∼3.5 GeV

“…In most cases, as suggested by [89], the simulation is found to predict too high a fraction of background events. Figure 9 shows the signal fraction as a function of the muon kinematic variables.…”