Study of the neutrino-oxygen cross sections of the charged-current reaction 16O($\bar{\nu}_e,e^+$)16N(0 MeV,$2^-$) and the neutral-current reaction 16O($\nu,\nu$')16O(12.97/12.53 MeV,$2^-$), producing high-energy gamma rays

TL;DR

This paper investigates neutrino-oxygen interactions, specifically charged-current and neutral-current reactions, focusing on high-energy gamma-ray production and improved reaction identification methods in water Cherenkov detectors.

Contribution

It extends previous work by analyzing both charged-current and neutral-current reactions with a focus on high-energy gamma-ray detection and reaction identification techniques.

Findings

Enhanced understanding of neutrino-oxygen cross sections.

Development of coincidence detection methods for reaction identification.

Quantitative analysis of gamma-ray production in neutrino interactions.

Abstract

In the previous work, we discussed the cross section and the detection of 4.4-MeV $\gamma$ rays produced in the neutrino neutral-current (NC) reaction $^{16}$O($\nu, \nu^{\prime}$)$^{16}$O(12.97 MeV and 12.53 MeV, $2^-$) in a water Cherenkov detector at the low energy below 100 MeV. In this report, we further investigated both the charged-current (CC) reaction $^{16}$O($\bar\nu_e, e^+$)$^{16}$N(0 MeV, $2^-$) and the NC reaction$^{16}$O($\nu, \nu^{\prime}$)$^{16}$O(12.97 MeV and 12.53 MeV, $2^-$), producing high-energy $\gamma$ rays, in which the more solid identification of the reactions can be applied via the coincidence method.