Measurement of the Inclusive Electron Neutrino Charged Current Cross Section on Carbon with the T2K Near Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports the first differential measurements of electron neutrino charged current interactions on carbon at ~1 GeV using T2K ND280, providing data that agree with leading neutrino interaction models and previous experiments.

Contribution

It presents the first differential cross-section measurements of electron neutrino interactions at ~1 GeV on carbon, validating neutrino interaction generators and previous experimental results.

Findings

Measured total flux-averaged $ u_e$ CC cross-section: $1.11 imes10^{-38} cm^2/nucleon$

Differential measurements agree with NEUT and GENIE predictions

Total cross-section consistent with Gargamelle data

Abstract

The T2K off-axis near detector, ND280, is used to make the first differential cross-section measurements of electron neutrino charged current interactions at energies ~1 GeV as a function of electron momentum, electron scattering angle and four-momentum transfer of the interaction. The total flux-averaged $\nu_e$ charged current cross-section on carbon is measured to be $1.11\pm0.09~(stat)\pm0.18~(syst)\times10^{-38} cm^2/nucleon$. The differential and total cross-section measurements agree with the predictions of two leading neutrino interaction generators, NEUT and GENIE. The NEUT prediction is $1.23\times10^{-38} cm^2/nucleon$ and the GENIE prediction is $1.08\times10^{-38} cm^2/nucleon$. The total $\nu_e$ charged current cross-section result is also in agreement with data from the Gargamelle experiment.