World average charged-current inclusive neutrino cross section from 6 to 200 GeV

Abstract

The methods of the Particle Data Group are applied to produce a world average inclusive, charged-current, muon neutrino cross section energy-dependence slope $σ/E_ν$ . For the energy range $30 < E_ν< 200$, values obtained are (0.677 $\pm$ 0.013) and (0.335 $\pm$ 0.007) $\times 10^{-38}$ cm$^2$/GeV for neutrino and anti-neutrino, respectively. These values are practically identical to those in common use. This paper expands the experiments whose data are used and describes the evolution of measurements leading to the result. Next, the value for $σ/E_ν$ is obtained for the low energy extensions by experiments that used the low-$ν$ method to anchor to the high energy result. In the range $6 < E_ν< 30$ GeV, values of (0.698 $\pm$ 0.018) and (0.316 $\pm$ 0.012) $\times 10^{-38}$ cm$^2$/GeV are obtained. These are higher than the high energy average for neutrino and lower for anti-neutrino, but consistent at the edge of the uncertainty estimates. An interpretation of the evolution of the inclusive cross section, nuclear effects, and isoscalar corrections is provided in the context of the Bodek Yang 2000 model and two configurations of the GENIE neutrino event generators. These cross sections underpin foundational neutrino quantities such as structure functions, electroweak parameter measurements, and oscillation parameter determinations.