arXiv subjects

Omar Benhar

Publications and source records attributed to Omar Benhar.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Estimate of the theoretical uncertainty of the cross sections for nucleon knockout in neutral-current neutrino-oxygen interactions

Free nucleons propagating in water are known to produce gamma rays, which form a background to the searches for diffuse supernova neutrinos and sterile neutrinos carried out with Cherenkov detectors. As a consequence, the process of nucleon knockout induced by neutral-current quasielastic interactions of atmospheric (anti)neutrinos with oxygen needs to be under control at the quantitative level in the background simulations of the ongoing and future experiments. In this paper, we provide a quantitative assessment of the uncertainty associated with the theoretical description of the nuclear cross sections, estimating it from the discrepancies between the predictions of different models.

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arXiv2015

Improving the accuracy of neutrino energy reconstruction in charged-current quasielastic scattering off nuclear targets

We report the results of a theoretical study of quasielastic electron and neutrino interactions with carbon. Our approach takes into account the effects of final-state interactions between the struck nucleon and the residual nucleus, neglected in the impulse approximation, through a generalization of the spectral function formalism. The calculated electron-scattering cross sections turn out to be in very good agreement with the available data over a broad kinematical region. The impact of nuclear effects on the reconstruction of neutrino energy in charged-current quasielastic processes is also studied, and the results of our approach are compared to the predictions of the relativistic Fermi gas model, routinely employed in most Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the existing procedure for energy reconstruction and propose a new, improved, one. At energy ~600 MeV, we observe a sizable difference between neutrino and antineutrino scattering, important for the measurements of charge-parity symmetry violation. Our analysis suggests that a reliable determination of neutrino energy can only be obtained from models validated by a systematic comparison to the available electron-scattering data.

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arXiv2014

Effective interaction approach to the Fermi hard-sphere system

The formalism based on correlated basis functions and the cluster expansion technique has been recently employed to derive an effective interaction from a realistic nuclear hamiltonian. To gauge the reliability of this scheme, we perform a systematic comparison between the results of its application to the Fermi hard-sphere system and the predictions obtained from low-density expansions, as well as from other many-body techniques. The analysis of a variety of properties, including the ground state energy, the effective mass and the momentum distribution, shows that the effective interaction approach is remarkably accurate, thus suggesting that it may be employed to achieve a consistent description of the structure and dynamics of nuclear matter in the density region relevant to astrophysical applications.

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arXiv2014

Short-range correlation effects on the nuclear matrix element of neutrinoless double-$β$ decay

We report the results of a calculation of the nuclear matrix element of neutrinoless double-$β$ decay of $^{48}$Ca, carried out taking into account nucleon-nucleon correlations in both coordinate- and spin-space. Our numerical results, obtained using nuclear matter correlation functions, suggest that inclusion of correlations leads to a $\sim$ $20\%$ decrease of the matrix element, with respect to the shell model prediction. This conclusion is supported by the results of an independent calculation, in which correlation effects are taken into account using the spectroscopic factors of $^{48}$Ca obtained from an {\em ab intitio} many body approach.

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arXiv2013

Two particle-two hole final states in quasi elastic neutrino-nucleus interactions

The excitation of two particle-two hole final states in neutrino-nucleus scattering, not taken into account in Monte Carlo simulations for data analysis, has been advocated by many authors as the source of the excess cross section observed by the MiniBooNE collaboration in the quasi elastic channel. We analyse the mechanisms leading to the appearance of two particle-two hole states, and show that interference between the amplitudes involving one- and two-nucleon currents, not consistently included in existing calculations, plays a major role. A novel approach allowing to treat one- and two-nucleon current contributions on the same footing is outlined.

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arXiv2013

Neutron knockout in neutral-current neutrino-oxygen interactions

The ongoing and future searches for diffuse supernova neutrinos and sterile neutrinos carried out with large water-Cherenkov detectors require a precise determination of the backgrounds, especially those involving gamma rays. Of great importance, in this context, is the process of neutron knockout through neutral-current scattering of atmospheric neutrinos on oxygen. Nuclear reinteractions of the produced neutron may in fact lead to the production of gamma rays of energies high enough to mimic the processes of interest. In this Letter, we focus on the kinematical range suitable for simulations of atmospheric-neutrino interactions and provide the neutron-knockout cross sections computed using the formalism based on realistic nuclear spectral function. The role of the strange-quark contribution to the neutral-current axial form factor is also analyzed. Based on the available experimental information, we give an estimate of the associated uncertainty.

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arXiv2013

Nuclear Effects in Neutrino Interactions and their Impact on the Determination of Oscillation Parameters

The quantitative description of the effects of nuclear dynamics on the measured neutrino-nucleus cross sections -- needed to reduce the systematic uncertainty of long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments -- involves severe difficulties. Owing to the uncertainty on the incoming neutrino energy, different reaction mechanisms contribute to the cross section measured at fixed energy and scattering angle of the outgoing lepton, and must therefore be consistently taken into account within a unified model. We review the theoretical approach based on the impulse approximation and the use of realistic nucleon spectral functions, allowing one to describe a variety of reaction mechanisms active in the broad kinematical range covered by neutrino experiments. The extension of this scheme to include more complex mechanisms involving the two-nucleon current, which are believed to be important, is also outlined. The impact of nuclear effects on the determination of neutrino oscillation parameters is illustrated by analyzing the problem of neutrino energy reconstruction.

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arXiv2013

Neutral current interactions of low-energy neutrinos in dense neutron matter

We report the results of a calculation of the response of cold neutron matter to neutral-current interactions with low energy neutrinos, carried out using an effective interaction and effective operators consistently derived within the formalism of Correlated Basis Functions. The neutrino mean free path obtained from the calculated responses turns out to be strongly affected by both short and long range correlations, leading to a sizable increase with respect to the prediction of the Fermi gas model. The consistency between the proposed approach and Landau theory of normal Fermi liquids also has been investigated, using a set of Landau parameters obtained from the matrix elements of the effective interaction.

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arXiv2013

Final state interactions in the nuclear response at large momentum transfer

The convolution approach, widely employed to describe final state interactions in the response of many-body systems, is derived from the expression of the nuclear response in the zeroth-order ladder approximation. Within this framework, the folding function, accounting for the effects of interactions between the struck particle and the spectator system, can be immediately related to the spectral function of particle states.The role of nucleon-nucleon correlations in determining the energy dependence is analyzed.

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arXiv2012

Weak response of neutron matter at low momentum transfer

The Landau parameters obtained from the matrix elements of an effective interaction recently derived within the formalism of correlated basis functions have been used to carry out a study of the weak response of neutron matter in the region of low momentum transfer. The proposed approach allows for a consistent description of different interaction effects and can be extended to describe matter at non vanishing temperature. The results show that interactions lead to a sizable enhancement of the neutrino mean free path in cold neutron matter. The dependence of the mean free path on temperature and neutrino energy is also analyzed.

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arXiv2012

Weak response of cold symmetric nuclear matter at three-body cluster level

We studied the Fermi and Gamow-Teller responses of cold symmetric nuclear matter within a unified dynamical model, suitable to account for both short- and long-range correlation effects. The formalism of correlated basis functions has been used to construct two-body effective interactions and one-body effective weak operators. The inclusion of the three-body cluster term allowed for incorporating in the effective interaction a realistic model of three- nucleon forces, namely the UIX potential. Moreover, the sizable unphysical dependence of the effective weak operator is removed once the three-body cluster term is taken into account.

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arXiv2012

Density-dependent nucleon-nucleon interaction from UIX three-nucleon force

A density-dependent two-nucleon potential has been derived in the formalism of correlated basis function. The effects of 3-particle interactions has been included by integrating out the degrees of freedom of the third nucleon. The potential can be easily employed in nuclear matter calculations. It yields results in agreement with those obtained from the underlying three-body potential. The use of the density dependent potential allowed us to study the effects of three-nucleon interactions in symmetric nuclear matter within the Auxiliary Field Diffusion Monte Carlo (AFDMC) computational scheme.

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arXiv2012

Nuclear binding, correlations and the origin of EMC effect

Recent data for the slope of the EMC-ratio in the intermediate $x$-region for {\em light} nuclei, with $3 \leq A \leq 12$, have the potential to shed new light on the origin of the EMC effect. Here we study the role of nuclear binding using the scaling variable ${\tilde y}$, best suited to take into account this effect, and the understanding of the average nucleon removal energies, $\bar{E}$, provided by state-of-the-art calculations based on nuclear many body theory. We find an excellent correlation between the new EMC data at $x \sim 0.5$ and $\bar{E}$ for nuclei with $A$ from 3 to $\infty$, indicating that in this $x$ region binding is an important ingredient to explain the EMC effect. The role played by nucleon-nucleon correlations in this context is also discussed.

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arXiv2012

Gamma-ray production in neutral-current neutrino-oxygen interactions at energies above 200 MeV

We report the results of a calculation of the neutrino- and antineutrino-induced gamma-ray production cross section for oxygen target. Our analysis is focused on the kinematical region of neutrino energy larger than ~200MeV, in which single-nucleon knockout is known to be the dominant reaction mechanism. The numerical results have been obtained using a realistic model of the target spectral function, extensively tested against electron-nucleus scattering data. We find that at neutrino energy 600 MeV the fraction of neutral-current interactions leading to emission of gamma-rays of energy larger than 6 MeV is ~41%, and that the contribution of the p_{3/2} state is overwhelming.

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arXiv2012

Analysis of gamma-ray production in neutral-current neutrino-oxygen interactions at energies above 200 MeV

It has long been recognized that observation of gamma rays originating from nuclear deexcitation can be exploited to identify neutral-current neutrino-nucleus interactions in water-Cherenkov detectors. We report the results of a calculation of the neutrino- and antineutrino-induced gamma-ray production cross section for oxygen target. Our analysis is focused on the kinematical region of neutrino energy larger than ~200 MeV, in which single-nucleon knockout is known to be the dominant reaction mechanism. The numerical results have been obtained using for the first time a realistic model of the target spectral function, extensively tested against electron-nucleus scattering data. We find that at neutrino energy 600 MeV the fraction of neutral-current interactions leading to emission of gamma-rays of energy larger than 6 MeV is ~41%, and that the contribution of the p_3/2 state is overwhelming.

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arXiv2011

Confronting electron- and neutrino-nucleus scattering

The analysis of the sample of charged current quasi elastic events collected by the MiniBooNE Collaboration suggests that the scheme successfully employed to describe electron-nucleus scattering fails to explain neutrino-nucleus cross sections. I argue that, due to flux average, the double differential neutrino-nucleus cross section does not allow for a clearcut determination of the dominant reaction mechanism. A systematic study of the large body of electron scattering data may help to identify the processes, other than single nucleon knockout, contributing to the observed neutrino cross section.

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arXiv2011

Comparative study of three-nucleon potentials in nuclear matter

A new generation of local three-body potentials providing an excellent description of the properties of light nuclei, as well as of the neutron-deuteron doublet scattering length, has been recently derived. We have performed a comparative analysis of the equations of state of both pure neutron matter and symmetric nuclear matter obtained using these models of three-nucleon forces. None of the considered potentials simultaneously explains the empirical equilibrium density and binding energy of symmetric nuclear matter. However, two of them provide reasonable values of the saturation density. The ambiguity concerning the treatment of the contact term of the chiral inspired potentials is discussed.

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arXiv2011

Electroweak nuclear response at moderate momentum transfer

We discuss the convergence of the expansion of the nuclear electroweak current in powers of |k|/M, where M is the nucleon mass and k denotes either the momentum transfer or the momentum of the struck nucleon. We have computed the electron and neutrino scattering cross sections off uniform nuclear matter at equilibrium density using correlated wave functions and the cluster expansion formalism. The results of our work suggest that the proposed approach provides accurate estimates of the measured electron scattering cross sections. On the other hand, the description of the current based on the widely used leading-order approximation does not appear to be adequate, even at momentum transfer as low as 300 MeV.

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