Current Status for the Inclusive Neutral Current $\pi^{0}$ production Cross Section Measurement with the NOvA Near Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports on the current status of measuring the inclusive neutral current $C0^{0}$ production cross section using the NOvA Near Detector, crucial for understanding backgrounds in neutrino oscillation experiments.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurement of the NC $C0^{0}$ production cross section with the NOvA Near Detector, aiding background reduction in neutrino oscillation studies.

Findings

Initial cross section measurements obtained

Background contributions characterized

Analysis methods established for future precision

Abstract

NOvA (NuMI Off-axis {\nu}e Appearance) experiment is designed to study long-baseline neutrino oscillations using two detectors, the Near Detector (ND) at Fermilab and the Far Detector (FD) at a distance 810 km in Northern Minnesota. NOvA looks for the $\nu_{e}$ appearance at the FD using a narrow band $\nu_\mu$ beam peaked at 2 GeV in energy. Neutral Current (NC) interactions with a $\pi^{0}$ in the final state represent the main background in the $\nu_{e}$ appearance measurement. The $\pi^{0}$ decay into two photons can fake the $\nu_{e}$ appearance signal in two ways either two photon showers merge together or one of the two photons may escape the detection. Therefore, a complete understanding of $\nu_{\mu}$ induced NC interactions with $\pi^{0}$ in the final state is very important. It will also help in reducing the background uncertainties for current and future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. We present here the current status of the analysis related to the inclusive NC $\pi^{0}$ production cross section measurement with the NOvA ND.