Lepton-Nucleus Interactions within Microscopic Approaches

TL;DR

This review highlights the importance of microscopic calculations with error estimates in lepton-nucleus interactions, comparing Green's Function Monte Carlo and spectral function approaches, and validating models against electron and neutrino scattering data.

Contribution

It introduces and compares two microscopic approaches for lepton-nucleus interactions, including relativistic effects and error quantification, enhancing the accuracy of theoretical predictions.

Findings

Relativistic effects significantly reduce theoretical cross sections in neutrino scattering.

Quantum Monte Carlo spectral functions accurately reproduce electron-scattering data.

Comparison quantifies errors in factorization and relativistic approximations.

Abstract

This review paper emphasizes the significance of microscopic calculations with quantified theoretical error estimates in studying lepton-nucleus interactions and their implications for electron-scattering and accelerator neutrino-oscillation measurements. We investigate two approaches: Green's Function Monte Carlo and the extended factorization scheme, utilizing realistic nuclear target spectral functions. In our study, we include relativistic effects in Green's Function Monte Carlo and validate the inclusive electron-scattering cross section on carbon using available data. We compare the flux folded cross sections for neutrino-Carbon scattering with T2K and MINER$\nu$A experiments, noting the substantial impact of relativistic effects in reducing the theoretical curve strength when compared to MINER$\nu$A data. Additionally, we demonstrate that quantum Monte Carlo-based spectral functions accurately reproduce the quasi-elastic region in electron-scattering data and T2K flux folded cross sections. By comparing results from Green's Function Monte Carlo and the spectral function approach, which share a similar initial target state description, we quantify errors associated with approximations in the factorization scheme and the relativistic treatment of kinematics in Green's Function Monte Carlo.