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

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.