First Double-Differential Cross Section Measurement of Neutral-Current <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msup><mml:mi>π</mml:mi><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:msup></mml:math> Production in Neutrino-Argon Scatter

We report the first double-differential cross section measurement of neutral-current neutral pion (NCπ^{0}) production in neutrino-argon scattering, as well as single-differential measurements of the same channel in terms of final states with and without protons. The kinematic variables of interest for these measurements are the π^{0} momentum and the π^{0} scattering angle with respect to the neutrino beam. A total of 4971 candidate NCπ^{0} events fully contained within the MicroBooNE detector are selected using data collected at a mean neutrino energy of ∼0.8 GeV from 6.4×10^{20} protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. After extensive data-driven model validation to ensure unbiased unfolding, the Wiener-singular-value-decomposition method is used to extract nominal flux-averaged cross sections. The results are compared to predictions from commonly used neutrino event generators, which tend to overpredict the measured NCπ^{0} cross section, especially in the 0.2-0.5 GeV/c π^{0} momentum range and at forward scattering angles. Events with at least one proton present in the final state are also underestimated. This data will help improve the modeling of NCπ^{0} production, which represents a major background in measurements of charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector and in searches for new physics beyond the standard model.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical Review Letters
Published
2025-04-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.134.161802
Citations
8
Primary Topic
Neutrino Physics Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
14.96

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article

First Double-Differential Cross Section Measurement of Neutral-Current <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msup><mml:mi>π</mml:mi><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:msup></mml:math> Production in Neutrino-Argon Scatter

N. McConkey, J. Barrow, O. Alterkait, W. C. Louis et al.
8 citations
Physical Review Letters
Neutrino Physics Research
14.96
article

First Double-Differential Cross Section Measurement of Neutral-Current <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msup><mml:mi>π</mml:mi><mml:mn>0</mml:mn></mml:msup></mml:math> Production in Neutrino-Argon Scatter

N. McConkey, J. Barrow, O. Alterkait, W. C. Louis, K. Pletcher, G. A. Horton-Smith, L. E. Yates, J. J. Evans, J. Y. Book, A. P. Furmanski, A. Chappell, J. Spitz, I. Kreslo, A. Bhat, Y. Chen, J. Shi, T. Kobilarcik, M. Wospakrik, M. Bishai, B. Eberly, D. Torbunov, S. R. Dennis, D. Barrow, J. St. John, J. L. Raaf, C. James, M. Convery, M. H. Shaevitz, Kunio Terao, J.E. Bateman, V. Basque, F. Cavanna, A. M. Szelc, A. Mastbaum, N. Nayak, J. M. Conrad, M. Ross-Lonergan, S. R. Dennis, Ryan Cross, N. Taniuchi, S. Mulleriababu, V. Meddage, D. Caratelli, B. Irwin, V. Paolone, R. Diurba, T. Usher, Hairong Wei, Z. Imani, G. P. Zeller, B. Bogart, X. Luo, F. Gao, L. Hagaman, J. I. Crespo-Anadón, S. Balasubramanian, A. Bhanderi, L. Rochester, T. Strauss, E. Gramellini, K. Wresilo, D. Kalra, J. Marshall, M. A. Uchida, C. D. Moore, A. Blake, H. B. Parkinson, Alexander Trettin, D. Franco, T. Wongjirad, I. Safa, G. Ge, W. Ketchum, C. Thorpe, E. L. Snider, S. Gardiner, Y. Li, D. Totani, K. Lin, N. Kamp, N. Pallat, O. Palamara, I. Pophale, L. M. Gu, L. Mora Lepin, M. Söderberg, K. Miller, John E. Tyler, D. Marsden, O. Hen, N. Oza, S. F. Pate, L. Ren, R. Dorrill, P. Guzowski, S. Berkman, A. Rafique, C. Hilgenberg, Z. Pavlovic, L. Cooper-Troendle, M. Bhattacharya, S. Wolbers, R. A. Johnson, B. Baller, Jessie Micallef, M. Stancari, O. Benevides Rodrigues, D. Naples, Z. Djurcic, J. Nowak, R. Guenette, A. Navrer-Agasson, I. Mawby, H. Greenlee, G. Karagiorgi, G. Barr, R. Fine, A. Schukraft, M. Mooney, V. Papavassiliou, M. Nebot-Guinot, A. J. White, E. Yandel, A. Papadopoulou, P. Englezos, W. Gu, B. R. Littlejohn, J. Wang, D. Garcia-Gamez, A. Ereditato, L. Camilleri, Yuan Cao, A. F. Moor, J. Zennamo, C. Zhang, Bonnie Fleming, P. Abratenko, M. Toups, K. Duffy, J.-Y. Li, J. Asaadi, J. H. Jo, V. Radeka, M. M. Moudgalya, M. Weber, Wei Wu, Wei Tang, X. Qian, M. B. Brunetti, T. Mohayai, P. Green, T. Yang, W. Foreman, Adi Ashkenazi, S. Söldner‐Rembold, T. Bolton, S. Martynenko, M. Rosenberg, S. Dytman, B. Viren, Y.-T. Tsai, N. Patel, N. Lorenzo Martinez, G. Cerati, E. Piasetzky, Mike Kirby, D. W. Schmitz, J. Rodriguez Rondon, H. Yu, I. Lepetic, X. Ji, D. A. Martínez Caicedo, S. Gollapinni, Y.-J. Jwa, X. Luo, D. Andrade Aldana, L. Arellano, G. Scanavini, M. S. Ismail, A. Barnard, N. Lane, Jesus Eduardo Munoz Mendez, A. Mogan, M. Handley, R. Sharankova, M. Ross-Lonergan, W. Seligman, Haibo Liu
article en
8 citations

Abstract

We report the first double-differential cross section measurement of neutral-current neutral pion (NCπ^{0}) production in neutrino-argon scattering, as well as single-differential measurements of the same channel in terms of final states with and without protons. The kinematic variables of interest for these measurements are the π^{0} momentum and the π^{0} scattering angle with respect to the neutrino beam. A total of 4971 candidate NCπ^{0} events fully contained within the MicroBooNE detector are selected using data collected at a mean neutrino energy of ∼0.8 GeV from 6.4×10^{20} protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. After extensive data-driven model validation to ensure unbiased unfolding, the Wiener-singular-value-decomposition method is used to extract nominal flux-averaged cross sections. The results are compared to predictions from commonly used neutrino event generators, which tend to overpredict the measured NCπ^{0} cross section, especially in the 0.2-0.5 GeV/c π^{0} momentum range and at forward scattering angles. Events with at least one proton present in the final state are also underestimated. This data will help improve the modeling of NCπ^{0} production, which represents a major background in measurements of charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector and in searches for new physics beyond the standard model.

Physical Review LettersVol. 134(16)
New Mexico State University (US), University of Bern (CH), Louisiana State University (US), Tufts University (US), Argonne National Laboratory (US), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US), Los Alamos National Laboratory (US), Tel Aviv University (IL), University of Pittsburgh (US), Universidad de Granada (ES), Illinois Institute of Technology (US), South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (US), Kansas State University (US), Brookhaven National Laboratory (US), Nankai University (CN), University of Cambridge (GB), University of Michigan (US), University of Minnesota System (US), Harvard University Press (US), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US), University of California System (US), University of Manchester (GB), Yale University (US), University of Warwick (GB), University of Oxford (GB), University of Chicago (US), Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (NL), Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (ES), University College London (GB), Indiana University (US), University of Cincinnati (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), Lancaster University (GB), Syracuse University (US), University of Southern Maine (US), University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US), Columbia University (US), Virginia Tech (US), Michigan State University (US), Colorado State University (US), University of Edinburgh (GB)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, UK Research and Innovation, Royal Society, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Office of Science, Science and Technology Facilities Council, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Fermilab
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Neutrino Physics Research
14.96
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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