Measurement of the double-differential cross section of muon-neutrino charged-current interactions with low hadronic energy in the NOvA Near Detector

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed measurements of muon-neutrino charged-current interactions with low hadronic energy in the NOvA Near Detector, revealing significant discrepancies with theoretical models, especially in forward muon kinematics.

Contribution

It provides the first double-differential cross section measurements for low hadronic energy neutrino interactions, enabling better testing of nuclear interaction models.

Findings

Strong disagreement between data and models in muon kinematic regions.

Enhanced sample of quasi-elastic and 2p2h interactions.

Results facilitate improved nuclear model validation.

Abstract

The NOvA collaboration reports cross-section measurements for $\nu_{\mu}$ charged-current interactions with low hadronic energy (maximum kinetic energy of 250 MeV for protons and 175 MeV for pions) in the NOvA Near Detector. The results are presented as a double-differential cross section as a function of the direct observables of the final-state muon kinematics. Results are also presented as a single-differential cross section as a function of the derived square of the four-momentum transfer, $Q^{2}$, and as a function of the derived neutrino energy. The data correspond to an accumulated 8.09$\times10^{20}$ protons-on-target (POT) in the neutrino mode of the NuMI beam, with a narrow band of neutrino energies peaked at 1.8 GeV. The analysis provides a sample of neutrino-nucleus interactions with an enhanced fraction of quasi-elastic and two-particle-two-hole (2p2h) interactions. This enhancement allows quantitative comparisons with various nuclear models. We find strong disagreement between data and theory-based models in various regions of the muon kinematic phase space, especially in the forward muon direction.