Monte Carlo event generation of neutrino-electron scattering

TL;DR

This paper extends the NuWro Monte Carlo generator to include neutrino-electron scattering, enabling detailed simulation of these processes and their backgrounds in neutrino experiments.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new module in NuWro for simulating neutrino-electron scattering, including charged and neutral current interactions with interference effects.

Findings

Neutrino-electron scattering events occupy distinct phase space regions.

The new module accurately estimates backgrounds in neutrino oscillation experiments.

The implementation covers all lepton flavors and interaction channels.

Abstract

We describe an extension of the NuWro Monte Carlo neutrino event generator with the neutrino-electron scattering processes. This new dynamical channel includes the charged current and neutral current interactions, together with their interference, for $\nu_\ell e$ and $\bar\nu_\ell e$ ($\ell=e,\mu,\tau$) scatterings, resulting in ten possible final states. We illustrate the performance of the new functionality on few physical examples, including an estimation of the background in the T2K $\nu_\mu\rightarrow\nu_e$ oscillation experiment. We show that the background events arising from the neutrino-electron interactions occupy mostly a distinct region of the phase space and can be easily separated.