Meson-exchange currents and quasielastic predictions for neutrino-nucleus scattering

TL;DR

This paper reviews the SuSAv2-MEC model's ability to predict neutrino-nucleus scattering, demonstrating good agreement with recent experimental data and analyzing the impact of meson-exchange currents on the scattering process.

Contribution

It introduces and validates the SuSAv2-MEC model for neutrino-nucleus scattering, highlighting the role of meson-exchange currents and their density dependence in quasielastic responses.

Findings

Model accurately predicts T2K data on oxygen and carbon nuclei.

Meson-exchange currents significantly affect two-particle two-hole channels.

Density dependence of MEC contributions differs from quasielastic response expectations.

Abstract

We review some recent progress in the study of electroweak interactions in nuclei within the SuSAv2-MEC model. The model has the capability to predict (anti)neutrino scattering observables on different nuclei. The theoretical predictions are compared with the recent T2K $\nu_\mu-^{16}$O data and good agreement is found at all kinematics. The results are very similar to those obtained for $\nu_\mu-^{12}$C scattering, except at low energies, where some differences emerge. The role of meson-exchange currents in the two-particle two-hole channel is analyzed in some detail. In particular it is shown that the density dependence of these contributions is different from what is found for the quasielastic response.