Abstract: The MiniBooNE experiment has reported results from the analysis of v(e) and (v) over bar (e) appearance searches, which show an excess of signal-like events at low reconstructed neutrino energies, with respect to the expected background. A significant component of this background comes from photon emission induced by (anti) neutrino neutral current interactions with nucleons and nuclei. With an improved microscopic model for these reactions, we predict the number and distributions of photon events at the MiniBooNE detector. Our results are compared to the MiniBooNE in situ estimate and to other theoretical approaches. We find that, according to our model, neutral current photon emission from single-nucleon currents is insufficient to explain the events excess observed by MiniBooNE in both neutrino and antineutrino modes.

Abstract: Neutral-current photon emission reactions with nucleons and nuclei are studied. These processes are important backgrounds for nu(mu) -> nu(e) ((nu) over bar (mu) -> (nu) over bar (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 Delta(1232) resonance and its subsequent decay into N gamma. 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 Delta(1232). From these states, the contribution of the D-13 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 Delta 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.

Abstract: The properties of strange (K, (K) over bar and (K) over bar*) and open-charm (D, (D) over bar and D*) mesons in dense matter are studied using a unitary approach in coupled channels for meson-baryon scattering. In the strangeness sector, the interaction with nucleons always comes through vector-meson exchange, which is evaluated by chiral and hidden gauge Lagrangians. For the interaction of charmed mesons with nucleons we extend the SU(3) Weinberg-Tomozawa Lagrangian to incorporate spin-flavor symmetry and implement a suitable flavor symmetry breaking. The in-medium solution for the scattering amplitude accounts for Pauli blocking effects and meson self-energies. On one hand, we obtain the K, (K) over bar and (K) over bar* spectral functions in the nuclear medium and study their behaviour at finite density, temperature and momentum. We also make an estimate of the transparency ratio of the gamma A -> K+ K*(-) A' reaction, which we propose as a tool to detect in-medium modifications of the (K) over bar* meson. On the other hand, in the charm sector, several resonances with negative parity are generated dynamically by the s-wave interaction between pseudoscalar and vector meson multiplets with 1/2(+) and 3/2(+) baryons. The properties of these states in matter are analyzed and their influence on the open-charm meson spectral functions is studied. We finally discuss the possible formation of D-mesic nuclei at FAIR energies.