The coherent pion production induced by neutrinos in nuclei is studied using a delta hole model in the local density approximation taking into account the renormalization of $\Delta$ properties in a nuclear medium. The pion absorption effects are included in an eikonal approximation. These effects give a large reduction in the total cross section. The numerical results for the total cross section are found to be consistent with recent experimental results from the K2K and MiniBooNE Collaborations and other older experiments in the intermediate energy region.

• Received 16 January 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.241801