Incoherent Pion Production in Neutrino - Deuteron Reactions

TL;DR

This paper models incoherent pion production in neutrino-deuteron reactions near the $elta(1232)$ resonance, emphasizing the role of final state interactions and challenging the spectator approximation used in prior analyses.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive dynamical model incorporating nucleon-nucleon and pion-nucleon interactions to accurately predict neutrino-deuteron pion production cross sections.

Findings

Final state interactions are crucial for understanding experimental data.

Spectator approximation is invalid for certain neutrino-deuteron reactions.

Model successfully describes pion photo-production data on deuteron.

Abstract

Within the multiple scattering formulation, the incoherent pion production in neutrino-deuteron reactions at energies near the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance is investigated. The calculations include an impulse term and one-loop contributions from nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) and pion-nucleon ($\pi N$) final state interactions. The input amplitudes of $\pi N$ scattering and electroweak pion production reaction on nucleon are generated from a dynamical model which describes very extensive data of $\pi N$ scattering and both the electromagnetic and the weak pion production reactions on the nucleon. The $NN$ scattering amplitudes are generated from the Bonn potential. The validity of the calculational procedures is established by giving a reasonably good description of the data of pion photo-production on the deuteron. The constructed model is then applied to predict the cross sections of $\nu + d \rightarrow \mu^- + \pi^+ + n+ p$ and $\nu +d \rightarrow \mu^-+\pi^0+p+p$ reactions. The importance of including the $NN$ final state interactions to understand the experimental data of these neutrino-deuteron reactions is demonstrated. Our results strongly suggest that the spectator approximation used in the previous analyses to extract the pion production cross sections on the nucleon from the data on the deuteron is not valid for the $\nu + d \rightarrow \mu^-+ \pi^+ +n+p$, but is a good approximation for $\nu + d \rightarrow \mu^-+ \pi^0 + p+p$.