Measurement of single pi0 production in neutral current neutrino interactions with water by a 1.3 GeV wide band muon neutrino beam

TL;DR

This paper reports a measurement of neutral current single pi0 production by neutrinos at 1.3 GeV energy using a water Cherenkov detector, providing insights into neutrino interactions relevant for oscillation experiments.

Contribution

It presents the first measurement of the cross section ratio of neutral current single pi0 production to total charged current interactions at this energy.

Findings

Cross section ratio measured as 0.064 +- 0.001 (stat.) +- 0.007 (sys.)

Pi0 momentum distribution agrees with theoretical expectations

Results aid in understanding neutrino interaction backgrounds

Abstract

Neutral current single pi0 production induced by neutrinos with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV is measured at a 1000 ton water Cherenkov detector as a near detector of the K2K long baseline neutrino experiment. The cross section for this process relative to the total charged current cross section is measured to be 0.064 +- 0.001 (stat.) +- 0.007 (sys.). The momentum distribution of produced pi0s is measured and is found to be in good agreement with an expectation from the present knowledge of the neutrino cross sections.