Modeling neutrino-nucleus interactions in the few-GeV regime

TL;DR

This paper models neutrino-nucleus interactions in the few-GeV energy range, incorporating final-state interactions and nuclear correlations to improve understanding of neutrino detection and nuclear structure insights.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model combining RMSGA and CRPA approaches to accurately simulate neutrino-induced reactions and explore strange quark effects.

Findings

Enhanced modeling of final-state interactions using RMSGA

Assessment of nuclear correlations via CRPA at low energies

Sensitivity analysis of neutrino interactions to strange quark content

Abstract

Detecting neutrinos and extracting the information they bring along is an ambitions task that requires a detailed understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions over a broad energy range. We present calculations for quasi-elastic neutrino-induced nucleon knockout reactions on atomic nuclei and neutrino-induced pion production reactions. In our models, final-state interactions are introduced using a relativistic multiple-scattering Glauber approximation (RMSGA) approach. For interactions at low incoming neutrino energies, long-range correlations are implemented by means of a continuum random phase approximation (CRPA) approach. As neutrinos are the only particles interacting solely by means of the weak interaction, they can reveal information about e.g. the structure of nuclei or the strange quark content of the nucleon that is difficult to obtain otherwise. We investigated these effects and present results for the sensitivity of neutrino interactions to the influence of the nucleon's strange quark sea.