# Measurement of Neutrino-Induced Neutral-Current Coherent $\pi^0$ Production in the NOvA Near Detector

## TL;DR

This paper reports the most precise measurement to date of neutrino-induced neutral-current coherent $b0$ production on carbon at around 2.7 GeV, providing valuable data for neutrino oscillation experiments.

## Contribution

It presents the first high-precision measurement of the neutral-current coherent $b0$ production cross section in the few-GeV energy range.

## Key findings

- Measured flux-averaged cross section: 13.8 ± 0.9 (stat) ± 2.3 (syst) × 10^{-40} cm^2/nucleus.
- Result is consistent with theoretical model predictions.
- Most precise measurement in the 2-3 GeV neutrino energy region.

## Abstract

The cross section of neutrino-induced neutral-current coherent $\pi^0$ production on a carbon-dominated target is measured in the NOvA near detector. This measurement uses a narrow-band neutrino beam with an average neutrino energy of 2.7\,GeV, which is of interest to ongoing and future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. The measured, flux-averaged cross section is $\sigma = 13.8\pm0.9 (\text{stat})\pm2.3 (\text{syst}) \times 10^{-40}\,\text{cm}^2/\text{nucleus}$, consistent with model prediction. This result is the most precise measurement of neutral-current coherent $\pi^0$ production in the few-GeV neutrino energy region.