Measurement of muon plus proton final states in $\nu_{\mu}$ Interactions on Hydrocarbon at $\langle$$E_{\nu}$$\rangle$ = 4.2 GeV

TL;DR

This paper measures muon plus proton final states in muon neutrino interactions on hydrocarbon at 4.2 GeV, providing insights into quasielastic and inelastic processes and informing models of neutrino-nucleus interactions.

Contribution

It presents a detailed cross section measurement of muon-proton final states, comparing hadronic and muonic kinematic-based models, and highlights the importance of multi-nucleon correlations.

Findings

Hadronic kinematics-based cross section aligns with a relativistic Fermi gas model.

Muon kinematics-based cross section requires an extended model with multi-nucleon correlations.

Results inform comprehensive neutrino-nucleus interaction models.

Abstract

A study of charged-current muon neutrino scattering on hydrocarbon in which the final state includes a muon and a proton and no pions is presented. Although this signature has the topology of neutrino quasielastic scattering from neutrons, the event sample contains contributions from both quasielastic and inelastic processes where pions are absorbed in the nucleus. The analysis accepts events with muon production angles up to 70$^{\circ}$ and proton kinetic energies greater than 110 MeV. The extracted cross section, when based completely on hadronic kinematics, is well-described by a simple relativistic Fermi gas nuclear model including the neutrino event generator modeling for inelastic processes and particle transportation through the nucleus. This is in contrast to the quasielastic cross section based on muon kinematics, which is best described by an extended model that incorporates multi-nucleon correlations. This measurement guides the formulation of a complete description of neutrino-nucleus interactions that encompasses the hadronic as well as the leptonic aspects of this process.