Measurement of Muon Neutrino Quasi-Elastic Scattering on Carbon

TL;DR

This paper measures muon neutrino quasi-elastic scattering on carbon, showing that a modified Fermi gas model with specific parameters accurately describes the observed events, aiding future neutrino oscillation experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first precise measurement of CCQE cross sections on carbon using a high-statistics sample, introducing a modified Fermi gas model with specific parameters.

Findings

Effective axial mass M_A^eff = 1.23+/-0.20 GeV

Pauli-suppression parameter kappa = 1.019+/-0.011

Modified Fermi gas model accurately describes CCQE events

Abstract

The observation of neutrino oscillations is clear evidence for physics beyond the standard model. To make precise measurements of this phenomenon, neutrino oscillation experiments, including MiniBooNE, require an accurate description of neutrino charged current quasi-elastic (CCQE) cross sections to predict signal samples. Using a high-statistics sample of muon neutrino CCQE events, MiniBooNE finds that a simple Fermi gas model, with appropriate adjustments, accurately characterizes the CCQE events observed in a carbon-based detector. The extracted parameters include an effective axial mass, M_A^eff = 1.23+/-0.20 GeV, that describes the four-momentum dependence of the axial-vector form factor of the nucleon; and a Pauli-suppression parameter, kappa = 1.019+/-0.011. Such a modified Fermi gas model may also be used by future accelerator-based experiments measuring neutrino oscillations on nuclear targets.