Investigating the differences between electron and muon neutrino interactions using the T2K near detector

TL;DR

This study compares electron and muon neutrino interactions in the T2K near detector by analyzing cross section ratios to improve understanding of neutrino behavior and reduce systematic uncertainties.

Contribution

It introduces a method using cross section ratios and their double ratio to compare electron and muon neutrino interactions, minimizing systematic uncertainties.

Findings

Double ratio of CCQE to CC cross sections for $ u_e$ and $ u_$.

Systematic uncertainties canceled in the ratio analysis.

Enhanced understanding of neutrino flavor interactions.

Abstract

The T2K neutrino beam consists mostly of muon neutrinos with a 1$\%$ component of electron neutrinos. In order to maximise the physics potential of T2K and other future neutrino experiments, it is important to understand how these electron and muon neutrinos interact. To this end, the ratio of the Charged-Current Quasi-Elastic (CCQE) cross section to the total Charged Current (CC) cross section is taken for both $\nu_{e}$ and $\nu_\mu$ using data from the T2K near detector, ND280, and simulated data from NEUT and GENIE Monte Carlo generators. This has the advantage that many of the systematic uncertainties will cancel in the analysis, including the flux of $\nu_{e}$ and $\nu_\mu$ in the beam. The double ratio of these two ratios is then taken as a means of directly comparing the interactions of the two neutrino flavours.