SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 2407.10962

Benchmarking neutrino interaction models via a comparative analysis of kinematic imbalance measurements from the T2K, MicroBooNE and MINERvA experiments

Abstract

Recent neutrino-nucleus cross-section measurements of observables characterising kinematic imbalance from the T2K, MicroBooNE and MINERvA experiments are used to benchmark predictions from widely used neutrino interaction event generators. Given the different neutrino energy spectra and nuclear targets employed by the three experiments, comparisons of model predictions to their measurements breaks degeneracies that would be present in any single measurement. In particular, the comparison of T2K and MINERvA measurements offers a probe of energy dependence, whilst a comparison of T2K and MicroBooNE investigates scaling with nuclear target. In order to isolate the impact of individual nuclear effects, model comparisons are made following systematic alterations to: the nuclear ground state; final state interactions and multi-nucleon interaction strength. The measurements are further compared to the generators used as an input to DUNE/SBN and T2K/Hyper-K analyses. Whilst no model is able to quantitatively describe all the measurements, evidence is found for mis-modelling of A-scaling in multi-nucleon interactions and it is found that tight control over how energy is distributed among hadrons following final state interactions is likely to be crucial to achieving improved agreement. Overall, this work provides a novel characterisation of neutrino interactions whilst offering guidance for refining existing generator predictions.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Wissal Filali, Laura Munteanu, Stephen Dolan. 2024-07-15. Benchmarking neutrino interaction models via a comparative analysis of kinematic imbalance measurements from the T2K, MicroBooNE and MINERvA experiments. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.111.032009

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Production of Light Nuclei and Hypernuclei in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We review recent STAR and ALICE measurements of light-nucleus and hypernucleus yields, femtoscopic correlations, and collective flow presented at SQM 2026. Statistical-hadronization calculations provide a useful baseline for integrated yields but do not simultaneously describe all measured light-nucleus ratios across collision energies and system sizes. For bound states with mass number $A<4$, current coalescence calculations provide a broadly consistent description of yields, femtoscopic correlations, and collective flow, although the quantitative hypertriton comparison depends on the assumed few-body wave function. The suppressed production of resonant $^{4}$Li relative to compact $^{4}$He indicates an effect of nuclear structure and late-stage dynamics. However, the quantitative model comparison also depends on the treatment of feed-down from unstable states. In high-multiplicity $p$+$p$ collisions, pion-deuteron femtoscopy further indicates that most observed (anti)deuterons are formed through nucleon fusion after strong decays of short-lived resonances. Taken together, these measurements show that production chronology and internal nuclear structure leave measurable imprints on the physics observables.

hep-ex

Search for the process $e^+e^-\to f_1(1285)$ at the SND detector

In the experiment with the SND detector at the VEPP-2000 $e^+e^-$ collider, a search is performed for the direct production of the $C$-even $f_1(1285)$ resonance in $e^+e^-$ collisions. The analysis is based on data with an integrated luminosity of about 200 pb$^{-1}$, accumulated in the center-of-mass energy range of 1.14--1.46 GeV, of which about 72 pb$^{-1}$ were recorded near the maximum of the $f_1(1285)$ resonance. The $f_1(1285)$ production cross section at the resonance maximum $\sigma(e^+e^-\to f_1)=(31\pm 13\pm 2)$ pb and the branching fraction $B(f_1(1285)\to e^+e^-)=(3.5\pm 1.4\pm 0.3)\times 10^{-9}$ have been measured. The significance of the observation of the $e^+e^-\to f_1(1285)$ process is $2.5\sigma$. Since the significance is low, we also present the upper limits at the 90% confidence level: $\sigma(e^+e^-\to f_1)<48\mbox{ pb}$ and $B(f_1(1285)\to e^+e^-)<5.4\times 10^{-9}$.

hep-ex

Projected Sensitivity to Slow Muonphilic Dark Matter with Accelerator Muon Beams

The nature of dark matter (DM) remains one of the most enduring open questions in modern physics, and muonphilic DM has emerged as a promising scenario that complements traditional DM candidates. Following the recently established cosmic-ray muon scattering approach, we investigate the sensitivity for probing slow muonphilic DM with accelerator muon beams. A Geant4-based simulation framework is developed, incorporating the detector geometry from the PKMu muon tomography system and a dedicated elastic $\mu$-DM scattering process. The projected sensitivity is found to be largely insensitive to both the beam energy and the transverse beam size when the beam is fully contained within the detector acceptance. For a benchmark beam intensity of $10^5/\rm{s}$, the simulated pure-muon beam surpasses the existing cosmic-ray limit of $1.61\times10^{-17}$ cm$^2$ at $m_{\rm DM}=1$ GeV within approximately 11 seconds. A realistic muon beam phase-space distribution based on simulations for the High Intensity heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) is also implemented, yielding projected limits that improve upon the cosmic-ray results by nearly two orders of magnitude in a one-day exposure. These results demonstrate that a beam-muon scattering experiment offers a robust and promising route toward significantly improved sensitivity to slow muonphilic DM.

hep-ex