Implications of recent MINER$\nu$A results for neutrino energy reconstruction

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent MINERνA experimental results on neutrino interaction cross-sections and discusses their impact on improving neutrino energy reconstruction in oscillation experiments.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of differential cross-sections for various neutrino interaction channels and analyzes their implications for neutrino energy estimation.

Findings

Differential cross-sections for CCQE, resonant, and coherent pion production measured.

Results highlight uncertainties affecting neutrino energy reconstruction.

Implications for reducing systematic errors in oscillation experiments.

Abstract

Among the most important tasks of neutrino oscillation experiments is correctly estimating the parent neutrino energy from the by-products of their interactions. Large uncertainties in our current understanding of such processes can significantly hamper this effort. We explore several recent measurements made using the \mnv{} detector in the few-GeV NuMI muon neutrino beam at Fermilab: the differential cross-section vs. $Q^2$ for charged-current quasi-elastic scattering, the differential cross-sections vs. pion angle and pion kinetic energy for resonant single charged pion production, and the differential cross-sections vs. pion angle and kinetic energy for coherent pion production. We furthermore discuss their implications for energy reconstruction in oscillation measurements.