Neutral current quasielastic (anti)neutrino scattering beyond the Fermi gas model at MiniBooNE and BNL kinematics

TL;DR

This paper analyzes neutral current quasielastic (anti)neutrino scattering on carbon using a realistic spectral function that incorporates nucleon-nucleon correlations and final-state interactions, comparing results with experimental data and other models.

Contribution

It introduces a spectral function approach with NN correlations and FSI effects for neutrino scattering, extending beyond the Fermi gas model and aligning with electron scattering data.

Findings

Results agree with MiniBooNE and BNL data

NN correlations significantly affect cross sections

Spectral function approach improves modeling accuracy

Abstract

Neutral current quasielastic (anti)neutrino scattering cross sections on a $^{12}$C target are analyzed using a realistic spectral function $S(p,E)$ that gives a scaling function in accordance with the ($e,e'$) scattering data. The spectral function accounts for the nucleon-nucleon (NN) correlations by using natural orbitals (NOs) from the Jastrow correlation method and has a realistic energy dependence. The standard value of the axial mass $M_A= 1.032$ GeV is used in all calculations. The role of the final-state interaction (FSI) on the spectral and scaling functions, as well as on the cross sections is accounted for. A comparison of the calculations with the empirical data of the MiniBooNE and BNL experiments is performed. Our results are analyzed in comparison with those when NN correlations are not included, and also with results from other theoretical approaches, such as the relativistic Fermi gas (RFG), the relativistic mean field (RMF), the relativistic Green's function (RGF), as well as with the SuperScaling Approach (SuSA) based on the analysis of quasielastic electron scattering.