Single photon production induced by (anti)neutrino neutral current scattering on nucleons and nuclear targets

TL;DR

This paper reviews a theoretical model for neutral current photon emission by neutrinos on nucleons and nuclei, crucial for interpreting neutrino oscillation experiments, incorporating resonance and nuclear effects.

Contribution

The paper presents a comprehensive theoretical approach including resonant and non-resonant contributions, nuclear medium effects, and compares predictions with experimental data.

Findings

Model reproduces MiniBooNE and T2K photon event distributions.

Inclusion of nuclear effects significantly impacts predicted event rates.

Predictions are consistent with NOMAD upper limits at higher energies.

Abstract

We review our theoretical approach to neutral current photon emission on nucleons and nuclei in the few-GeV energy region, relevant for neutrino oscillation experiments. These reactions are dominated by the weak excitation of the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance but there are also important non-resonant contributions. We have also included terms mediated by nucleon excitations from the second resonance region. On nuclei, Pauli blocking, Fermi motion and the in-medium $\Delta$ resonance broadening have been taken into account for both incoherent and coherent reaction channels. With this model, the number and distributions of photon events at the MiniBooNE and T2K experiments have been obtained. We have also compared to the NOMAD upper limit at higher energies. The implications of our findings and future perspectives are discussed.