Associated hyperon-kaon production via neutrino-nucleus scattering

TL;DR

This paper investigates neutrino-induced strangeness production on nuclei using a relativistic model, embedding elementary amplitudes in the nuclear medium, and analyzing differential cross sections at intermediate energies.

Contribution

It introduces a relativistic plane wave impulse approximation framework for neutrino-nucleus interactions, incorporating nuclear medium effects and elementary amplitudes derived from a Born approximation model.

Findings

Angular distributions are forward peaked.

Cross sections mimic the bound nucleon's missing momentum.

Results are specific to neutrino-induced K+Λ production on carbon.

Abstract

We present the investigation of the neutrino-induced strangeness associated production on nuclei in the relativistic plane wave impulse approximation (RPWIA) framework at the intermediate neutrino energies. In this study, the elementary hadronic weak amplitudes are embedded inside the nuclear medium for the description of the exclusive channels of neutrino-nucleus interactions. These amplitudes are extracted using a model-dependent evaluation of the hadronic vertex using the Born term approximation in which the application of the Cabibbo V-A theory and SU(3) symmetry are assumed to be valid. The nuclear effects are included via the bound state wavefunctions of the nucleon obtained from the relativistic mean field (RMF) models. Two kinematics settings are used to examine various distributions of the differential cross section in the rest frame of the target nuclei. The numerical results are obtained for the neutrino-induced charged-current (CC) \,$\rm K^{^+}\Lambda$-production on bound neutrons in $1s^{1/2}$ and $1p^{3/2}$ orbitals of $^{12}$C. The angular distributions are forward peaked under both kinematic settings, whereas under the quasifree setting the cross sections tend mimic the missing momentum distribution of the bound nucleon inside the nucleus.