Measurement of coherent $\pi^{+}$ production in low energy neutrino-Carbon scattering

TL;DR

This paper presents the first flux-averaged measurement of charged current coherent π+ production on carbon at neutrino energies below 1.5 GeV, challenging previous null results and comparing models with experimental data.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of this process at low energies and compares experimental results with new microscopic coherent models in neutrino interactions.

Findings

First flux-averaged cross section measurement for low-energy neutrino-carbon scattering.

Contradicts previous null results from K2K and SciBooNE.

Supports microscopic coherent models over older predictions.

Abstract

We report the first measurement of the flux-averaged cross section for charged current coherent $\pi^{+}$ production on carbon for neutrino energies less than 1.5 GeV to a restricted final state phase space region in the T2K near detector, ND280. Comparisons are made with predictions from the Rein-Sehgal coherent production model and the model by Alvarez-Ruso {\it et al.}, the latter representing the first implementation of an instance of the new class of microscopic coherent models in a neutrino interaction Monte Carlo event generator. This results contradicts the null results reported by K2K and SciBooNE in a similar neutrino energy region.