Reduced cross sections of electron and neutrino charged current quasielastic scattering on nuclei

Abstract

The semiexclusive averaged reduced cross sections for (anti)neutrino charged current quasielastic scattering on carbon, oxygen, and argon are analyzed within the relativistic distorted wave impulse approximation. One finds that these cross sections as functions of missing nucleon energy are similar to those of electron scattering and are in agreement with electron scattering data for the three nuclei. The difference between the electron and neutrino cross sections can be attributed to Coulomb distortion on the electron wave function. The averaged reduced cross sections depend slowly upon incoming lepton energy. The approach presented in this paper provides novel constraints on nuclear models of quasielastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and can be easily applied to test spectral functions and final state interactions employed in neutrino event generators. Published by the American Physical Society 2024