Charged Pion Production in $\nu_\mu$ Interactions on Hydrocarbon at $\langle E_{\nu}\rangle$= 4.0 GeV

TL;DR

This paper measures charged pion production in muon neutrino interactions on hydrocarbon at around 4 GeV, providing data that helps improve theoretical models and understand final state interactions relevant for neutrino oscillation experiments.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed measurements of pion production cross sections as functions of angle and energy in this energy range, comparing them to various theoretical models.

Findings

Data favor models with significant pion intranuclear rescattering

Measurements constrain primary interaction rates and final state interactions

Results improve understanding of pion production in neutrino interactions

Abstract

Charged pion production via charged current $\nu_{\mu}$ interactions on plastic (CH) is studied using the MINERvA detector exposed to the NuMI wideband neutrino beam at Fermilab. Events with hadronic invariant mass W $<$ 1.4 GeV are selected to isolate single pion production, which is expected to occur primarily through the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance. Cross sections as functions of pion production angle and kinetic energy are reported and compared to predictions from different theoretical calculations and generator-based models, for neutrinos ranging in energy from 1.5 GeV to 10 GeV. The data are best described by calculations which include significant contributions from pion intranuclear rescattering. These measurements constrain the primary interaction rate and the role of final state interactions in pion production, both of which need to be well understood by neutrino oscillation experiments.