arXiv subjects

Kajetan Niewczas

Publications and source records attributed to Kajetan Niewczas.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Electromagnetic responses induced by one- and two-body nuclear currents in inclusive electron-nucleus scattering

The longitudinal and transverse nuclear response functions encode information about the electromagnetic behavior of the nuclear target probed in inclusive electron-nucleus scattering. We present a microscopic calculation based on an independent-particle model, where a non-relativistic nuclear mean-field potential governs both the initial and final hadronic states of the interaction. We add dynamically generated short-range nucleon-nucleon correlations (SRCs), as well as meson-exchange currents (MECs) derived from one-pion exchange and intermediate $Δ$-resonance excitation. We evaluate the contributions from one- and two-nucleon knock-out reactions to nuclear responses in inclusive electron scattering from $^{12}\mathrm{C}$ in the quasielastic and dip regions. We demonstrate that for quasielastic kinematics, SRCs quench both nuclear responses, while the MECs enhance the transverse signal, substantially improving the predicted transverse-to-longitudinal ratio. In the dip region between the quasielastic and the $Δ$-resonance peaks, we find that the observed excess of transverse strength originates mainly from explicit two-nucleon knock-out following a $Δ$-resonance excitation.

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arXiv2026

Azimuthal asymmetry in exclusive quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus interactions

In neutrino oscillation experiments, exclusive measurements of neutrino-nucleus interactions play a critical role, by providing the theoretical and experimental input needed for a reliable estimation of the neutrino energy. In this paper, we derive the general form of the azimuthal angle distribution for quasi-elastic scattering, focusing on a dependency that has been routinely overlooked. We demonstrate that the outgoing nucleon exhibits a preference for emission outside the lepton scattering plane, with an asymmetric azimuthal distribution. In the context of neutrino-nucleus scattering, we argue that this asymmetry is caused by parity violation in the weak interaction. Furthermore, we show that in cross section calculations the asymmetry is sensitive to nuclear modeling choices and to the shell structure of the initial nucleus, thus providing a novel source of information for energy reconstruction in neutrino experiments. We study the experimental feasibility of observing this effect by applying a realistic momentum detection threshold and an intranuclear cascade. We estimate that the asymmetry is observable with $\mathcal{O}$($10^4$) events at the 99% confidence level for neutrino interactions on $^{12}$C, suggesting that the effect is within reach of the current generation of neutrino detectors.

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arXiv2025

Efficient Monte Carlo Event Generation for Neutrino-Nucleus Exclusive Cross Sections

Modern neutrino-nucleus cross section predictions need to incorporate sophisticated nuclear models to achieve greater predictive precision. However, the computational complexity of these advanced models often limits their practicality for experimental analyses. To address this challenge, we introduce a new Monte Carlo method utilizing Normalizing Flows to generate surrogate cross sections that closely approximate those of the original model while significantly reducing computational overhead. As a case study, we built a Monte Carlo event generator for the neutrino-nucleus cross section model developed by the Ghent group. This model employs a Hartree-Fock procedure to establish a quantum mechanical framework in which both the bound and scattering nucleon states are solutions to the mean-field nuclear potential. The surrogate cross sections generated by our method demonstrate excellent accuracy with a relative effective sample size of more than $98.4 \%$, providing a computationally efficient alternative to traditional Monte Carlo sampling methods for differential cross sections.

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arXiv2024

The Ghent Hybrid Model in NuWro: a new neutrino single-pion production model in the GeV regime

Neutrino-induced single-pion production constitutes an essential interaction channel in modern neutrino oscillation experiments, with its products building up a significant fraction of the observable hadronic final states. Frameworks of oscillation analyses strongly rely on Monte Carlo neutrino event generators, which provide theoretical predictions of neutrino interactions on nuclear targets. Thus, it is crucial to integrate state-of-the-art single-pion production models with Monte Carlo simulations to prepare for the upcoming systematics-dominated landscape of neutrino measurements. In this work, we present the implementation of the Ghent Hybrid model for neutrino-induced single-pion production in the NuWro Monte Carlo event generator. The interaction dynamics includes coherently-added contributions from nucleon resonances and a non-resonant background, merged into the pythia branching predictions in the deep-inelastic regime, as instrumented by NuWro. This neutrino-nucleon interaction model is fully incorporated into the nuclear framework of the generator, allowing it to account for the influence of both initial- and final-state nuclear medium effects. We compare the predictions of this integrated implementation with recent pion production data from accelerator-based neutrino experiments. The results of the novel model show improved agreement of the generator predictions with the data and point to the significance of the refined treatment of the description of pion-production processes beyond the $Δ$ region.

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arXiv2023

The role of de-excitation in the final-state interactions of protons in neutrino-nucleus interactions

Present and next generation of long-baseline accelerator experiments are bringing the measurement of neutrino oscillations into the precision era with ever-increasing statistics. One of the most challenging aspects of achieving such measurements is developing relevant systematic uncertainties in the modeling of nuclear effects in neutrino-nucleus interactions. To address this problem, state-of-the-art detectors are being developed to extract detailed information about all particles produced in neutrino interactions. To fully profit from these experimental advancements, it is essential to have reliable models of propagation of the outgoing hadrons through nuclear matter able to predict how the energy is distributed between all the final-state observed particles. In this article, we investigate the role of nuclear de-excitation in neutrino-nucleus scattering using two Monte Carlo cascade models: NuWro and INCL coupled with the de-excitation code ABLA. The ablation model ABLA is used here for the first time to model de-excitation in neutrino interactions. As input to ABLA, we develop a consistent simulation of nuclear excitation energy tuned to electron-scattering data. The paper includes the characterization of the leading proton kinematics and of the nuclear cluster production during cascade and de-excitation. The observability of nuclear clusters as vertex activity and their role in a precise neutrino energy reconstruction is quantified.

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arXiv2023

Monte Carlo event generation of neutrino-electron scattering

We describe an extension of the NuWro Monte Carlo neutrino event generator with the neutrino-electron scattering processes. This new dynamical channel includes the charged current and neutral current interactions, together with their interference, for $ν_\ell e$ and $\barν_\ell e$ ($\ell=e,μ,τ$) scatterings, resulting in ten possible final states. We illustrate the performance of the new functionality on few physical examples, including an estimation of the background in the T2K $ν_μ\rightarrowν_e$ oscillation experiment. We show that the background events arising from the neutrino-electron interactions occupy mostly a distinct region of the phase space and can be easily separated.

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arXiv2022

Benchmarking intra-nuclear cascade models for neutrino scattering with relativistic optical potentials

The description of final-state interactions (FSI) in the large phase space probed in neutrino experiments poses a great challenge. In neutrino experiments, which operate under semi-inclusive conditions, cascade models are commonly used for this task, while under exclusive conditions FSI can be treated with relativistic optical potentials (ROP). We formulate conditions under which the ROP approach and cascade model can be directly compared. We feed the NEUT cascade with events from a relativistic distorted-wave impulse approximation calculation that uses the real part of an optical potential. Cuts on the missing energy of the resulting events are applied to define a set of events that can be directly compared to RDWIA calculations with the full optical potential. The NEUT cascade and ROP agree for proton kinetic energies $T_p > 150$ MeV for carbon, oxygen and calcium nuclei when a realistic nuclear density is used to introduce events in the cascade. For $T_p < 100$ MeV the ROP and NEUT cross sections differ in shape and differences in magnitude are larger than 50 \%. Single transverse variables allow to distinguish different approaches to FSI, but due to a large non-QE contribution the comparison to T2K data does not give an unambiguous view of FSI. We discuss electron scattering and argue that with a cut in missing energy FSI can be studied with minimal confounding factors in e.g. $e4ν$. The agreement of the ROP and NEUT for T2K conditions lends confidence to these models as a tool in oscillation analyses for sufficiently large nucleon kinetic energies. These results urge for caution when a cascade model is applied for small nucleon energies. The assessment of model assumptions relevant to this region are strongly encouraged. This paper provides novel constraints on cascade models from proton-nucleus scattering that can be easily applied to other neutrino event generators.

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arXiv2020

Nuclear Transparency in Monte Carlo Neutrino Event Generators

Hadron cascade model is an essential part of Monte Carlo neutrino event generators that governs final state interactions of knocked-out nucleons and produced pions. It is shown that such model enriched with physically motivated modifications of nucleon-nucleon cross section and incorporation of nuclear correlation effects is able to reproduce experimental nuclear transparency data. Uncertainty of nucleon final state interactions effects is estimated and applied to recent neutrino-nucleus cross section measurements that include an outgoing proton in the experimental signal. Conclusions are drawn on a perspective of identification of events that originate from two-body current mechanism.

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arXiv2019

Electron versus muon neutrino induced cross sections in charged current quasi-elastic processes

Differences between $ν_e$ and $ν_μ$ quasielastic cross sections are essential in neutrino oscillation analyses and CP violation searches for experiments such as DUNE and T2HK. The ratio of these is however poorly known experimentally and for certain kinematic regions theoretical models give contradictory answers. We use two independent mean-field based models to investigate this ratio using $^{40}$Ar and $^{12}$C targets. We demonstrate that a proper treatment of the final nucleon's wave function confirms the dominance of $ν_μ$ over $ν_e$ induced cross sections at forward lepton scattering.

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arXiv2018

Modeling neutrino-induced charged pion production on water at T2K kinematics

Pion production is a significant component of the signal in accelerator-based neutrino experiments. Over the last years, the MiniBooNE, T2K and MINERvA collaborations have reported a substantial amount of data on (anti)neutrino-induced pion production on the nucleus. However, a comprehensive and consistent description of the whole data set is still missing. We aim at improving the current understanding of neutrino-induced pion production on the nucleus. To this end, the comparison of experimental data with theoretical predictions, preferably based on microscopic models, is essential to disentangle the different reaction mechanisms involved in the process. To describe single-pion production (SPP) we use a hybrid model that combines a low- and a high-energy approach. The low-energy model (LEM) contains resonances and background terms. At high invariant masses, a high-energy model based on a Regge approach is employed. The model is implemented in the nucleus using the relativistic plane wave impulse approximation (RPWIA). We present a comparison of the hybrid-RPWIA and LEM with the recent neutrino-induced charged current $1π^+$ production cross section on water reported by T2K. In order to judge the impact of final-state interactions (FSI) we confront our results with those of the NuWro Monte Carlo generator. The hybrid-RPWIA model and NuWro compare favorably to the data, albeit that FSI are not included in the former. These results complement our previous work [Phys. Rev. D 97, 013004 (2018)] where we compared the models to the MINERvA and MiniBooNE $1π^+$ data. The hybrid-RPWIA model tends to overpredict both the T2K and MINERvA data in kinematic regions where the largest suppression due to FSI is expected, and agrees remarkably well with the data in other kinematic regions. On the contrary, the MiniBooNE data is underpredicted over the whole kinematic range.

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arXiv2015

Search for nucleon-nucleon correlations in neutrino-argon scattering

A sample of two proton and no pion events selected in the ArgoNeuT neutrino scattering experiment on liquid argon target [Phys. Rev. D90 (2014) 012008] is analyzed with NuWro Monte Carlo event generator. An attempt is made to estimate how likely it is to obtain observed numbers of laboratory frame and reconstructed back-to-back nucleon pairs. For laboratory frame back-to-back events a clear data/MC discrepancy is seen. For the reconstructed nucleon pairs a good agreement is reported. We provide a simple kinematical argument why this accordance is expected.

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