Charged current neutrino and antineutrino induced associated particle production from nucleons

TL;DR

This paper models charged-current neutrino and antineutrino interactions producing KΛ particles from nucleons, combining nonresonant and resonant contributions to predict cross sections relevant for neutrino experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive effective Lagrangian model incorporating both nonresonant and resonant diagrams for KΛ production in neutrino interactions, calibrated with experimental data.

Findings

Predicted Q^2-distribution for KΛ production

Calculated total scattering cross sections

Provided distributions of kaon kinetic energy

Abstract

In this work, we study the charged-current (anti)neutrino-induced associated particle($K\Lambda$) production($\Delta S=0$) from free nucleons in the energy region of a few GeV, relevant to the (anti)neutrino oscillation experiments with accelerator and atmospheric neutrinos. We employ a model based on effective Lagrangians to evaluate the contributions from the nonresonant and the resonant diagrams. The nonresonant background terms are calculated using a microscopic model derived from the SU(3) chiral Lagrangians. For the resonant contributions, we consider the low-lying spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ resonances, such as $S_{11}(1650)$, $P_{11}(1710)$, $P_{11}(1880)$, and $S_{11}(1895)$, and spin-$\frac{3}{2}$ resonances, such as $P_{13}(1720)$ and $P_{13}(1900)$, which have finite branching ratios to the $K\Lambda$ channel. These resonant contributions are modelled using an effective phenomenological Lagrangian approach, with strong couplings determined from the experimental branching ratios and the decay widths to the $K\Lambda$ channel. To fix the parameters of the vector current interaction, the model is first used to reproduce satisfactorily the MAMI experimental data on the real photon induced scattering off the nucleon resulting an eta meson in the final state and with the CLAS data for the $K\Lambda$ production in the final state. The PCAC hypothesis and the generalized Goldberger-Treiman relation are used to fix the parameters of the axial vector interaction. The model is then applied to study the weak production of $K\Lambda$ induced by the neutrinos and antineutrinos, and predicts the numerical values for the $Q^2$-distribution, the kaon kinetic energy distribution, and the total scattering cross sections with and without a cut on the CM energy W. The results presented in this work are relevant for the present and future accelerator and atmospheric neutrino experiments.