TY - JOUR
T1 - First Double-Differential Cross Section Measurement of Neutral-Current π0 Production in Neutrino-Argon Scattering in the MicroBooNE Detector
AU - (MicroBooNE Collaboration)
AU - Abratenko, P.
AU - Alterkait, O.
AU - Andrade Aldana, D.
AU - Arellano, L.
AU - Asaadi, J.
AU - Ashkenazi, A.
AU - Balasubramanian, S.
AU - Baller, B.
AU - Barnard, A.
AU - Barr, G.
AU - Barrow, D.
AU - Barrow, J.
AU - Basque, V.
AU - Bateman, J.
AU - Benevides Rodrigues, O.
AU - Berkman, S.
AU - Bhanderi, A.
AU - Bhat, A.
AU - Bhattacharya, M.
AU - Bishai, M.
AU - Blake, A.
AU - Bogart, B.
AU - Bolton, T.
AU - Book, J. Y.
AU - Brunetti, M. B.
AU - Camilleri, L.
AU - Cao, Y.
AU - Caratelli, D.
AU - Cavanna, F.
AU - Cerati, G.
AU - Chappell, A.
AU - Chen, Y.
AU - Conrad, J. M.
AU - Convery, M.
AU - Cooper-Troendle, L.
AU - Crespo-Anadón, J. I.
AU - Cross, R.
AU - Del Tutto, M.
AU - Dennis, S. R.
AU - Detje, P.
AU - Diurba, R.
AU - Djurcic, Z.
AU - Dorrill, R.
AU - Duffy, K.
AU - Dytman, S.
AU - Eberly, B.
AU - Englezos, P.
AU - Ereditato, A.
AU - Evans, J. J.
AU - Piasetzky, E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 authors.
PY - 2025/4/25
Y1 - 2025/4/25
N2 - We report the first double-differential cross section measurement of neutral-current neutral pion (NCπ0) production in neutrino-argon scattering, as well as single-differential measurements of the same channel in terms of final states with and without protons. The kinematic variables of interest for these measurements are the π0 momentum and the π0 scattering angle with respect to the neutrino beam. A total of 4971 candidate NCπ0 events fully contained within the MicroBooNE detector are selected using data collected at a mean neutrino energy of ∼0.8 GeV from 6.4×1020 protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. After extensive data-driven model validation to ensure unbiased unfolding, the Wiener-singular-value-decomposition method is used to extract nominal flux-averaged cross sections. The results are compared to predictions from commonly used neutrino event generators, which tend to overpredict the measured NCπ0 cross section, especially in the 0.2-0.5 GeV/c π0 momentum range and at forward scattering angles. Events with at least one proton present in the final state are also underestimated. This data will help improve the modeling of NCπ0 production, which represents a major background in measurements of charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector and in searches for new physics beyond the standard model.
AB - We report the first double-differential cross section measurement of neutral-current neutral pion (NCπ0) production in neutrino-argon scattering, as well as single-differential measurements of the same channel in terms of final states with and without protons. The kinematic variables of interest for these measurements are the π0 momentum and the π0 scattering angle with respect to the neutrino beam. A total of 4971 candidate NCπ0 events fully contained within the MicroBooNE detector are selected using data collected at a mean neutrino energy of ∼0.8 GeV from 6.4×1020 protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. After extensive data-driven model validation to ensure unbiased unfolding, the Wiener-singular-value-decomposition method is used to extract nominal flux-averaged cross sections. The results are compared to predictions from commonly used neutrino event generators, which tend to overpredict the measured NCπ0 cross section, especially in the 0.2-0.5 GeV/c π0 momentum range and at forward scattering angles. Events with at least one proton present in the final state are also underestimated. This data will help improve the modeling of NCπ0 production, which represents a major background in measurements of charge-parity violation in the neutrino sector and in searches for new physics beyond the standard model.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105003713155&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.161802
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.161802
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AN - SCOPUS:105003713155
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 134
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 16
M1 - 161802
ER -