Global Extraction of the $\rm^{12}C$ Nuclear Electromagnetic Response Functions (${\cal R}_L$ and ${\cal R}_T$) and Comparisons to Nuclear Theory and Neutrino/Electron Monte Carlo Generators

TL;DR

This study extracts and parameterizes the electromagnetic response functions of carbon-12 from electron scattering data across various energies and momentum transfers, providing benchmarks for neutrino interaction models.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive extraction and parameterization of ${ m ^{12}C}$ response functions over broad kinematics, aiding validation of neutrino Monte Carlo generators.

Findings

Good agreement of combined ED-RMF and SuSAv2 models with data.

Response functions cover nuclear excitation, QE, and inelastic regions.

Provides parameterizations for use in neutrino physics simulations.

Abstract

We have performed a global extraction of the ${\rm ^{12}C}$ longitudinal (${\cal R}_L$) and transverse (${\cal R}_T$) nuclear electromagnetic response functions from an analysis of all available electron scattering data on carbon. The response functions are extracted for energy transfer $\nu$, spanning the nuclear excitation, quasielastic (QE), resonance and inelastic continuum over a large range of the square of the four-momentum transfer, $Q^2.$ In addition, we perform a universal fit to all ${\rm ^{12}C}$ electron scattering data which also provides parmeterizations of ${\cal R}_L$ and ${\cal R}_T$ over a larger kinematic range. Given the nuclear physics common to both electron and neutrino scattering from nuclei, extracted response functions from electron scattering spanning a large range of $Q^2$ and $\nu$ also provide a powerful tool for validation and tuning of neutrino Monte Carlo (MC) generators. In this paper we focus on the nuclear excitation, single nucleon (QE-1p1h) and two nucleon (2p2h) final state regions and compare the measurements to theoretical predictions including ``Energy Dependent-Relativistic Mean Field'' (ED-RMF), ``Green's Function Monte Carlo'' (GFMC), "Short Time Approximation Quantum Monte Carlo" (STA-QMC), an improved superscaling model (SuSAv2), "Correlated Fermi Gas" (CFG), as well as the \nuwro{}, and \achilles~ generators. Combining the ED-RMF-QE-1p1h predictions with the SuSAv2-MEC-2p2h predictions provides a good description of ${\cal R}_L$ and ${\cal R}_T$ for both single nucleon (from QE and nuclear excitations) and two nucleon final states over the entire kinematic range.