Measurement of $\nu_{\mu}$ and $\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$ Neutral Current $\pi^{0} \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ Production in the ArgoNeuT Detector

TL;DR

This paper presents the first measurement of neutral current $bc$ production of $b0$ mesons in neutrino-argon interactions, providing data to test and improve neutrino interaction models.

Contribution

It reports the first experimental measurement of neutral current $bc$ production in neutrino-argon scattering, comparing results with theoretical predictions.

Findings

Measured cross sections for $bc$ production in neutrino and antineutrino interactions.

Kinematic distributions consistent with some model predictions.

Provides data to refine neutrino interaction models.

Abstract

The ArgoNeuT collaboration reports the first measurement of neutral current $\pi^{0}$ production in $\nu_{\mu}$-argon and $\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$-argon scattering. This measurement was performed using the ArgoNeuT liquid argon time projection chamber deployed at Fermilab's NuMI neutrino beam with an exposure corresponding to 1.2$\times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target from the Fermilab Main Injector and a mean energy for $\nu_{\mu}$ of 9.6~GeV and for $\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$ of 3.6~GeV. We compare the measured cross section and kinematic distributions to predictions from the GENIE and NuWro neutrino interaction event generators.