Measurement of Inclusive Neutral Current Neutral Pion Production on Carbon in a Few-GeV Neutrino Beam

TL;DR

This paper measures neutral current neutral pion production in a neutrino beam on carbon, finding results consistent with theoretical models and providing key cross section ratios at around 1.1 GeV neutrino energy.

Contribution

First measurement of neutral current neutral pion production ratio on carbon at few-GeV energies, validating the Rein-Sehgal model with nuclear effects.

Findings

Ratio of neutral current neutral pion production: (7.7 ± 0.5(stat) ± 0.5(sys)) x 10^(-2)

Spectrum shape agrees with the Rein-Sehgal model

Neutral current coherent pion production ratio: (0.7 ± 0.4) x 10^(-2)

Abstract

The SciBooNE Collaboration reports inclusive neutral current neutral pion production by a muon neutrino beam on a polystyrene target (C8H8). We obtain (7.7 \pm 0.5(stat.) \pm 0.5 (sys.)) x 10^(-2) as the ratio of the neutral current neutral pion production to total charged current cross section; the mean energy of neutrinos producing detected neutral pions is 1.1 GeV. The result agrees with the Rein-Sehgal model implemented in our neutrino interaction simulation program with nuclear effects. The spectrum shape of the neutral pion momentum and angle agree with the model. We also measure the ratio of the neutral current coherent pion production to total charged current cross section to be (0.7 \pm 0.4) x 10^(-2).