Meson-exchange currents and quasielastic predictions for charged-current neutrino-12C scattering in the superscaling approach

TL;DR

This paper investigates how meson-exchange currents influence charged-current quasielastic neutrino-12C scattering predictions, using a relativistic framework and comparing results with experimental data to improve understanding of nuclear responses.

Contribution

It provides a new parametrization of meson-exchange current responses and combines it with the SuSAv2 scaling approach for more accurate cross section predictions.

Findings

MEC effects significantly impact neutrino scattering cross sections.

The combined model agrees well with multiple experimental datasets.

The parametrization improves the predictive power of quasielastic scattering models.

Abstract

We evaluate and discuss the impact of meson-exchange currents (MECs) on charged-current quasielastic neutrino cross sections. We consider the nuclear transverse response arising from two-particle two-hole states excited by the action of electromagnetic, purely isovector meson-exchange currents in a fully relativistic framework based on the work by the Torino Collaboration [A. D. Pace, M. Nardi, W. M. Alberico, T. W. Donnelly, and A. Molinari, Nucl. Phys. A726, 303 (2003)]. An accurate parametrization of this MEC response as a function of the momentum and energy transfers involved is presented. Results of neutrino-nucleus cross sections using this MEC parametrization together with a recent scaling approach for the one-particle one-hole contributions (named SuSAv2) are compared with experimental data (MiniBooNE, MINERvA, NOMAD and T2K Collaborations).