Abstract: Understanding single pion production reactions on free nucleons is the first step towards a correct description of these processes in nuclei, which are important for signal and background contributions in current and near future accelerator neutrino oscillation experiments. In this work, we reanalyze our previous studies of neutrino-induced one-pion production on nucleons for outgoing pi N invariant masses below 1.4 GeV. Our motivation is to get a better description of the nu(mu)n -> mu(-)n pi(+) cross section, for which current theoretical models give values significantly below data. This channel is very sensitive to the crossed Delta(1232) contribution and thus, to spin 1/2 components in the Rarita-Schwinger Delta propagator. We show how these spin 1/2 components are nonpropagating and give rise to contact interactions. In this context, we point out that the discrepancy with experiment might be corrected by the addition of appropriate extra contact terms and argue that this procedure will provide a natural solution to the nu(mu)n -> mu(-)n pi(+) puzzle. To keep our model simple, in this work, we propose to change the strength of the spin 1/2 components in the. propagator and use the nu(mu)n -> mu(-)n pi(+) data to constraint its value. With this modification, we now find a good reproduction of the nu(mu)n -> mu(-)n pi(+) cross section without affecting the good results previously obtained for the other channels. We also explore how this change in the. propagator affects our predictions for pion photoproduction and find also a better agreement with experiment than with the previous model.

Abstract: We have performed calculations for the non-leptonic Xi(-)(b) -> pi-(D-S(-)) Xi(0)(C) (2790)(J = 1/2) Xi(-)(b) -> pi(-) Xi(0)(C)(2815) (J = 3/2) and decays and the same reactions replacing the pi- by a D-s(-). At the same time we have also evaluated the semileptonic rates for and Xi(-)(b) -> pi-(D-S(-)) Xi(0)(C) (2790). We look at the reactions from the perspective that the Xi(0(2790))(c) and Xi(0)(c)(2815()) resonances are dynamically generated from the pseudoscalar-baryon and vector-baryon interactions. We evaluate ratios of the rates of these reactions and make predictions that can be tested in future experiments. We also find that the results are rather sensitive to the coupling of the Xi(c)* resonances to the D*Sigma and D*A components.

Abstract: In a well-established many-body framework, successful in modeling a great variety of nuclear processes, we analyze the role of the spectral functions (SFs) accounting for the modifications of the dispersion relation of nucleons embedded in a nuclear medium. We concentrate in processes mostly governed by one-body mechanisms, and study possible approximations to evaluate the particle hole propagator using SFs. We also investigate how to include together SFs and long-range RPA-correlation corrections in the evaluation of nuclear response functions, discussing the existing interplay between both type of nuclear effects. At low energy transfers (<= 50 MeV), we compare our predictions for inclusive muon and radiative pion captures in nuclei, and charge-current (CC) neutrino-nucleus cross sections with experimental results. We also present an analysis of intermediate energy quasi-elastic neutrino scattering for various targets and both neutrino and antineutrino CC driven processes. In all cases, we pay special attention to estimate the uncertainties affecting the theoretical predictions. In particular, we show that errors on the a,,sigma(mu)/sigma(e) ratio are much smaller than 5%, and also much smaller than the size of the SF+RPA nuclear corrections, which produce significant effects, not only in the individual cross sections, but also in their ratio for neutrino energies below 400 MeV. These latter nuclear corrections, beyond Pauli blocking, turn out to be thus essential to achieve a correct theoretical understanding of this ratio of cross sections of interest for appearance neutrino oscillation experiments. We also briefly compare our SF and RPA results to predictions obtained within other representative approaches.