Scientific article
English

First Differential Measurement of the Single π+ Production Cross Section in Neutrino Neutral-Current Scattering

ContributorsT2K Collaboration
Published inPhysical review letters, vol. 135, no. 17, 171803
First online date2025-10-23
Abstract

Since its first observation in the 1970s, neutrino-induced neutral-current single positive pion production ( NC 1 π + ) has remained an elusive and poorly understood interaction channel. This process is a significant background in neutrino oscillation experiments and studying it further is critical for the physics program of next-generation accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments. In this Letter, we present the first double-differential cross-section measurement of NC 1 π + interactions using data from the ND280 detector of the T2K experiment collected in ν -beam mode. The measured flux-averaged integrated cross section is σ = ( 6.07 ± 1.22 ) × 10 − 41     cm 2 / nucleon . We compare the results on a hydrocarbon target to the predictions of several neutrino interaction generators and final-state-interaction models. While model predictions agree with the differential results, the data show a weak preference for a cross-section normalization approximately 30% higher than predicted by most models studied in this Letter.

Funding
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology -
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science -
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada -
  • National Research Council Canada -
  • Canada Foundation for Innovation -
  • Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives -
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique -
  • Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules -
  • Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal - [NKFIH 137812]
  • Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare -
  • Ministerstwo Edukacji i Nauki - [2023/WK/04]
  • Narodowe Centrum Nauki - [UMO-2018/30/E/ST2/00441]
  • Russian Science Foundation - [RSF 24-12-00271]
  • Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation -
  • Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación -
  • European Regional Development Fund -
  • Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement, Generalitat de Catalunya -
  • Science and Technology Facilities Council -
  • UK Research and Innovation -
  • U.S. Department of Energy -
  • National Foundation for Science and Technology Development - [103.99-2023.144]
  • European Research Council -
  • National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center -
  • ’la Caixa’ Foundation -
  • Horizon 2020 Framework Programme -
  • HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions -
  • Royal Society -
  • Agence Nationale de la Recherche -
  • SERI -
  • VAST-JSPS - [QTJP01.02/20-22]
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - Search for CP violation in neutrino oscillations with the experiment T2K-II [397763730]
Citation (ISO format)
T2K Collaboration. First Differential Measurement of the Single π+ Production Cross Section in Neutrino Neutral-Current Scattering. In: Physical review letters, 2025, vol. 135, n° 17, p. 171803. doi: 10.1103/6d32-l452
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelRestricted
Identifiers
Additional URL for this publicationhttps://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/6d32-l452
Journal ISSN0031-9007
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