Reanalysis of bubble chamber measurements of muon-neutrino induced single pion production

TL;DR

This paper reanalyzes historical bubble chamber data on muon-neutrino induced single pion production, resolving previous discrepancies and providing flux-independent cross-section measurements that agree across experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a digitization and reanalysis method that yields flux-independent cross-sections, harmonizing results from Argonne and Brookhaven experiments.

Findings

Good agreement between ANL and BNL datasets.

Flux-independent cross-section ratios established.

Enhanced understanding of muon-neutrino single pion production.

Abstract

There exists a longstanding disagreement between bubble chamber measurements of the single pion production channel $\nu_{\mu}p\rightarrow \mu^{-}p\pi^{+}$ from the Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories. We digitize and reanalyse data from both experiments to produce cross-section ratios for various interaction channels, for which the flux uncertainties cancel, and find good agreement between the experiments. By multiplying the cross-section ratio by the well-understood charged current quasi-elastic cross-section on free nucleons, we extract single-pion production cross-sections which do not depend on the flux normalization predictions. The $\nu_{\mu}p\rightarrow \mu^{-}p\pi^{+}$ cross-sections we extract show good agreement between the ANL and BNL datasets.