Gamma production in neutrino interaction with nuclei

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how neutrino interactions with nuclei produce gamma rays via meson exchange, potentially explaining the low-energy excess of electron-like events observed in MiniBooNE.

Contribution

It introduces a meson exchange effect based on axial-vector mixing to calculate gamma production cross-sections in neutrino-nucleus interactions.

Findings

Gamma production cross-section increases at low neutrino energies.

The effect may influence interpretations of MiniBooNE low-energy excess.

Provides a theoretical estimate of gamma yields in neutrino interactions.

Abstract

We evaluate the cross-section for gamma production by neutrinos through a meson exchange effect which derives from the concept of axial-vector mixing. The resulting cross-section leads to some increase of the gamma production cross-section by neutrinos, especially at low neutrino energies, which may influence the understanding of the low energy excess of electron-like events seen in the MiniBooNE experiment.