Photon emission in neutral-current interactions at intermediate energies

E. Wang, L. Alvarez-Ruso, and J. Nieves
Phys. Rev. C 89, 015503 – Published 30 January 2014

Abstract

Neutral-current photon emission reactions with nucleons and nuclei are studied. These processes are important backgrounds for νμνe (ν¯μν¯e) appearance oscillation experiments where electromagnetic showers instigated by electrons (positrons) and photons are not distinguishable. At intermediate energies, these reactions are dominated by the weak excitation of the Δ(1232) resonance and its subsequent decay into Nγ. There are also nonresonant contributions that, close to threshold, are fully determined by the effective chiral Lagrangian of strong interactions. In addition, we have also included mechanisms mediated by nucleon excitations (N*) from the second resonance region above the Δ(1232). From these states, the contribution of the D13 N*(1520) turns out to be sizable for (anti)neutrino energies above 1.5 GeV. We have extended the model to nuclear targets taking into account Pauli blocking, Fermi motion, and the in-medium Δ resonance broadening. We present our predictions for both the incoherent and coherent channels, showing the relevance of the nuclear corrections. We also discuss the target mass dependence of the cross sections. This study is important to reduce systematic effects in neutrino oscillation experiments.

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  • Received 14 November 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.89.015503

©2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

E. Wang

  • Departamento de Física Teórica and IFIC, Centro Mixto Universidad de Valencia-CSIC, Institutos de Investigación de Paterna, E-46071 Valencia, Spain

L. Alvarez-Ruso and J. Nieves

  • Instituto de Física Corpuscular (IFIC), Centro Mixto CSIC-Universidad de Valencia, Institutos de Investigación de Paterna, E-46071 Valencia, Spain

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Vol. 89, Iss. 1 — January 2014

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