Neutral-current Neutrino-nucleus Scattering in Quasielastic Region

TL;DR

This paper models neutral-current neutrino-nucleus scattering in the quasielastic region using a relativistic approach, analyzing the effects of final state interactions and strange quark content on scattering asymmetries.

Contribution

It introduces a relativistic single particle model to study neutrino-induced nucleon knockout and examines the impact of final state interactions and strange quark effects on asymmetry.

Findings

Final state interactions significantly affect cross sections.

Asymmetry is sensitive to strange quark content.

Energy range 500 MeV to 1 GeV analyzed.

Abstract

The neutral-current neutrino-nucleus scattering is calculated through the neutrino-induced knocked-out nucleon process in the quasielastic region by using a relativistic single particle model for the bound and continuum states. The incident energy range between 500 MeV and 1.0 GeV is used for the neutrino (antineutrino) scattering on ^{12}C target nucleus. The effects of the final state interaction of the knocked-out nucleon are studied not only on the cross section but also on the asymmetry due to the difference between neutrinos and antineutrinos, within a relativistic optical potential. We also investigate the sensitivity of the strange quark contents in the nucleon on the asymmetry.