Abstract

We report the first measurement of π0 production in neutral current (NC) interactions on argon with average neutrino energy of ≲1 GeV. We use data from the MicroBooNE detector's 85 metric tons active volume liquid argon time projection chamber situated in Fermilab's Booster Neutrino Beam and exposed to 5.89×1020 protons on target for this measurement. Measurements of NC π0 events are reported for two exclusive event topologies without charged pions. Those include a topology with two photons from the decay of the π0 and one proton and a topology with two photons and zero protons. Flux-averaged cross sections for each exclusive topology and for their semi-inclusive combination are extracted (efficiency correcting for two-plus proton final states), and the results are compared to predictions from the genie, neut, and nuwro neutrino event generators. We measure cross sections of 1.243±0.185(syst)±0.076(stat), 0.444±0.098±0.047, and 0.624±0.131±0.075 [10-38 cm2/Ar] for the semi-inclusive NCπ0, exclusive NCπ0+1p, and exclusive NCπ0+0p processes, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Article number012004
JournalPhysical Review D
Volume107
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2023

Funding

FundersFunder number
European Union’s Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Fermi Research Alliance, LLCDE-AC02-07CH11359
High Energy Physics and Nuclear Physics
United Kingdom Research and Innovation
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Royal Society
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

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