NC Coherent pi0 Production Below 2 GeV

TL;DR

This paper investigates neutral current coherent $b0$ production in antineutrino interactions below 2 GeV, using MiniBooNE data to improve understanding of backgrounds in neutrino oscillation experiments.

Contribution

It presents the first measurement of NC coherent $b0$ production in antineutrino mode below 2 GeV, highlighting the process's characteristics and its significance as a background.

Findings

Measured NC coherent $b0$ production rate in antineutrino data.

Identified the forward-going $b0$ as a signature of coherent production.

Enhanced understanding of background processes for oscillation searches.

Abstract

The single largest background to future $\bar{\nu_{\mu}}\to \bar{\nu_e}$ ($\nu_\mu \to \nu_e$) oscillation searches is neutral current (NC) $\pi^0$ production. MiniBooNE, which began taking antineutrino data in January 2006, has the world's largest sample of reconstructed $\pi^0$'s produced by antineutrinos. These neutral pions are primarily produced through the $\Delta$ resonance but can also be created through "coherent production." The latter process is the coherent sum of glancing scatters of antineutrinos off a neutron or proton, in which the nucleus is kept intact but a $\pi^0$ is created. A signature of this process is a $\pi^0$ which is highly forward-going. It is useful to study coherent production using antineutrinos rather than neutrinos because the ratio of coherent to resonant scattering is enhanced in antineutrino running. The measurement of NC coherent $\pi^0$ production in the MiniBooNE antineutrino data will be discussed.