Pion production in the MiniBooNE experiment

TL;DR

This paper investigates neutrino-induced pion production in the MiniBooNE experiment using the GiBUU model, comparing theoretical predictions with experimental data to understand reaction mechanisms and nuclear effects.

Contribution

It applies the GiBUU model to analyze MiniBooNE pion production data and assesses the consistency of elementary pion production data sets with nuclear reaction results.

Findings

MiniBooNE data align with BNL elementary data after flux adjustment.

ANL data predict too low cross sections for pion production.

In-medium effects need further elementary data for definitive conclusions.

Abstract

Background: Charged current pion production gives information on the axial formfactors of nucleon resonances. It also introduces a noticeable background to quasi-elastic measurements on nuclear targets. Purpose: Understand pion production in neutrino interactions with nucleons and the reaction mechanism in nuclei. Method: The Giessen Boltzmann--Uehling--Uhlenbeck (GiBUU) model is used for an investigation of neutrino-nucleus reactions. Results: Theoretical results for integrated and differential cross sections for the MiniBooNE neutrino flux are compared to the data. Two sets of pion production data on elementary targets are used to obtain limits for the neutrino-nucleus reactions. Conclusions: The MiniBooNE pion production data are consistent with the BNL elementary data if a small flux renormalization is performed while the ANL input data lead to significantly too low cross sections. A final determination of in-medium effects requires new data on elementary (p,D) targets.