Analysis of flux-integrated semi-exclusive cross sections for charged current quasi-elastic neutrino scattering off 40Ar at energies available at the MicroBooNE experiment

TL;DR

This paper analyzes flux-integrated semi-exclusive cross sections for charged-current quasi-elastic neutrino scattering on argon at energies relevant to MicroBooNE, using a relativistic model to compare with experimental data.

Contribution

It applies the relativistic distorted-wave impulse approximation to neutrino-argon scattering and compares results with MicroBooNE data, constraining the nucleon axial mass.

Findings

Measured cross sections are well described with $1 < M_A < 1.2$ GeV.

The $ u_{ ext{mu}}, ext{mu} p$ channel contributes about 50",

Abstract

Flux-integrated semi-exclusive differential and integral cross sections for quasi-elastic neutrino charged-current scattering on argon are analyzed. We calculate these cross sections using the relativistic distorted-wave impulse approximation and compare with recent MicroBooNE data. We found that the measured cross sections can be described well within the experimental uncertainties with value of the nucleon axial mass $1 < M_A < 1.2$ GeV. The contribution of the exclusive channel $\boldmath{(\nu_{\mu}, \mu p)}$ to the flux-integrated inclusive cross sections is about 50\%.