Relativistic description of final-state interactions in neutral-current neutrino and antineutrino cross sections

TL;DR

This paper compares relativistic models for neutrino and antineutrino neutral-current quasielastic scattering, analyzing final-state interactions, strange-quark effects, and matching predictions with MiniBooNE experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a comparative analysis of relativistic impulse approximation models and evaluates their sensitivity to strange-quark content in neutrino scattering.

Findings

Relativistic models show good agreement with experimental data.

Strange-quark contributions significantly affect cross section predictions.

Flux-averaged antineutrino cross sections are numerically estimated.

Abstract

We evaluate semi-inclusive neutral-current quasielastic differential neutrino and antineutrino cross sections within the framework of the relativistic impulse approximation. The results of the relativistic mean field and of the relativistic Green's function models are compared. The sensitivity to the strange-quark content of the nucleon form factor is also discussed. The results of the models are compared with the MiniBooNE experimental data for neutrino scattering. Numerical predictions for flux-averaged antineutrino scattering cross sections are also presented.