Inclusive quasielastic (anti-)neutrino nucleus scattering within the Standard Model and beyond

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive formalism for inclusive neutrino-induced baryon production in nuclei, incorporating all relevant new physics operators and realistic nuclear effects, crucial for interpreting experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a general theoretical framework for (anti-)neutrino-nucleus scattering including new physics operators and realistic nuclear models, advancing beyond previous simplified approaches.

Findings

Nuclear corrections can overshadow new physics signals.

Final state interactions significantly affect hyperon production.

The formalism enables more accurate interpretation of neutrino scattering experiments.

Abstract

We derive fully general expressions for the inclusive (anti-)neutrino-induced nuclear quasielastic production of a strange or charmed baryon $Y$, considering all dimension-six new physics operators relevant to the semileptonic $q\to q'\ell \nu_\ell$ transition with both left- and right-handed neutrino fields. We illustrate the formalism by applying it to the $\Lambda_c$ production in neutrino nucleus scattering. The nuclear response is computed using a state-of-the-art {\it ab initio} spectral function, based on realistic nuclear many-body wavefunctions obtained via coupled-cluster method and a nuclear Hamiltonian derived from chiral effective field theory. We also highlight the role played by the final state interactions between the produced $Y$ hyperon and the residual nuclear system, which can obscure potential new physics signals in this (anti-)neutrino nucleus reaction. Our results improve upon previous studies that neglected nuclear corrections and uncertainties -- effects we show to be comparable to, or even larger than, those expected from new physics.