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Hernandez, E., Nieves, J., Sanchez, F., & Sobczyk, J. E. (2022). Tau longitudinal and transverse polarizations from visible kinematics in (anti-)neutrino nucleus scattering. Phys. Lett. B, 829, 137046–9pp.
Abstract: Since the upsilon(tau) ((upsilon) over bar (tau))A(Z) -> tau(-/+) X reaction is notoriously difficult to be directly measured, the information on the dynamics of this nuclear process should be extracted from the analysis of the energy and angular distributions of the tau decay visible products. These distributions depend, in addition to d(2)sigma / (dE(tau)d cos theta(tau)), on the components of the tau-polarization vector. We give, for the first time, the general expression for the outgoing hadron (pion or rho meson) energy and angular differential cross section for the sequential upsilon(tau) A(Z) -> tau(-) (pi(-)upsilon(tau,) rho(-)upsilon(tau))X and (upsilon) over bar (tau)A(Z) -> tau(+) (pi(+)(upsilon) over bar (tau), rho(+)(upsilon) over bar (tau)) X reactions. Though all possible nuclear reaction mechanisms contribute to the distribution, it may be possible to isolate/enhance one of them by implementing appropriate selection criteria. For the case of the quasi-elastic reaction off oxygen and neutrino energies below 6 GeV, we show that the pion distributions are quite sensitive to the details of the tau-polarization components. We find significant differences between the full calculation, where the longitudinal and transverse components of the tau polarization vector vary with the energy and the scattering angle of the produced tau, and the simplified scheme in which the polarizations are set to one and zero, being the latter their respective asymptotic values reached in the high energy regime. In addition to its potential impact on neutrino oscillation analyses, this result can be used to further test different nuclear models, since these observables provide complementary information to that obtained by means of the inclusive nuclear weak charged-current differential cross section. We also study the effects on the cross section of the W-4 and W-5 nuclear structure functions, which contributions are proportional to the charged lepton mass, and therefore difficult to constrain in muon and electron neutrino experiments.
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Nieves, J., & Sobczyk, J. E. (2017). In medium dispersion relation effects in nuclear inclusive reactions at intermediate and low energies. Ann. Phys., 383, 455–496.
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.
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Saul-Sala, E., Sobczyk, J. E., Rafi Alam, M., Alvarez-Ruso, L., & Nieves, J. (2021). Weak kaon production off the nucleon and Watson's theorem. Phys. Lett. B, 817, 136349–7pp.
Abstract: We have improved the tree-level model of Ref.[1] for weak production of kaons off nucleons by partially restoring unitarity. This is achieved by imposing Watson's theorem to the dominant vector and axial-vector contributions in appropriate angular momentum and isospin quantum number sectors. The observable consequences of this procedure are investigated.
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Sobczyk, J. E., Hernandez, E., Nakamura, S. X., Nieves, J., & Sato, T. (2018). Angular distributions in electroweak pion production off nucleons: Odd parity hadron terms, strong relative phases, and model dependence. Phys. Rev. D, 98(7), 073001–39pp.
Abstract: The study of pion production in nuclei is important for signal and background determinations in current and future neutrino oscillation experiments. The first step, however, is to understand the pion production reactions at the free nucleon level. We present an exhaustive study of the charged-current and neutral-current neutrino and antineutrino pion production off nucleons, paying special attention to the angular distributions of the outgoing pion. We show, using general arguments, that parity violation and time-reversal odd correlations in the weak differential cross sections are generated from the interference between different contributions to the hadronic current that are not relatively real. Next, we present a detailed comparison of three state-of-the-art, microscopic models for electroweak pion production off nucleons, and we also confront their predictions with polarized electron data, as a test of the vector content of these models. We also illustrate the importance of carrying out a comprehensive test at the level of outgoing pion angular distributions, going beyond comparisons done for partially integrated cross sections, where model differences cancel to a certain extent. Finally, we observe that all charged and neutral current distributions show sizable anisotropies, and identify channels for which parity-violating effects are clearly visible. Based on the above results, we conclude that the use of isotropic distributions for the pions in the center of mass of the final pion-nucleon system, as assumed by some of the Monte Carlo event generators, needs to be improved by incorporating the findings of microscopic calculations.
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Sobczyk, J. E., Nieves, J., & Sanchez, F. (2020). Exclusive-final-state hadron observables from neutrino-nucleus multinucleon knockout. Phys. Rev. C, 102(2), 024601–16pp.
Abstract: We present results of an updated calculation of the two particle two hole (2p2h) contribution to the neutrino-induced charge-current cross section. We provide also some exclusive observables, interesting from the point of view of experimental studies, e.g., distributions of momenta of the outgoing nucleons and of available energy, which we compare with the results obtained within the NEUT generator. We also compute, and separate from the total, the contributions of 3p3h mechanisms. Finally, we discuss the differences between the present results and previous implementations of the model in MC event generators, done at the level of inclusive cross sections, which might significantly influence the experimental analyses, particularly in the cases where the hadronic observables are considered.
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Sobczyk, J. E., Rocco, N., Lovato, A., & Nieves, J. (2019). Weak production of strange and charmed ground-state baryons in nuclei. Phys. Rev. C, 99(6), 065503–16pp.
Abstract: We present results for the quasielastic weak production of Delta and Sigma hyperons induced by (nu) over bar. scattering off nuclei in the kinematical region of interest for accelerator neutrino experiments. We employ realistic hole spectral functions and we describe the propagation of the hyperons in the nuclear medium by means of a Monte Carlo cascade. The latter strongly modifies the kinematics and the relative production rates of the hyperons, leading to a nonvanishing Sigma(+) cross section, to a sizable enhancement of the Lambda production and to a drastic reduction of the Sigma(0) and Sigma(-) distributions. We also compute the quasielastic weak Lambda(c) production cross section, paying special attention to estimate the uncertainties induced by the model dependence of the vacuum n -> Lambda(c) weak matrix element. In this regard, the recent BESIII measurements of the branching ratios of Lambda(c) -> Lambda l(+)nu(l) (l = e, mu) are used to benchmark the available theoretical predictions.
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Sobczyk, J. E., Rocco, N., Lovato, A., & Nieves, J. (2018). Scaling within the spectral function approach. Phys. Rev. C, 97(3), 035506–15pp.
Abstract: Scaling features of the nuclear electromagnetic response functions unveil aspects of nuclear dynamics that are crucial for interpreting neutrino-and electron-scattering data. In the large momentum-transfer regime, the nucleon-density response function defines a universal scaling function, which is independent of the nature of the probe. In this work, we analyze the nucleon-density response function of C-12, neglecting collective excitations. We employ particle and hole spectral functions obtained within two distinct many-body methods, both widely used to describe electroweak reactions in nuclei. We show that the two approaches provide compatible nucleon-density scaling functions that for large momentum transfers satisfy first-kind scaling. Both methods yield scaling functions characterized by an asymmetric shape, although less pronounced than that of experimental scaling functions. This asymmetry, only mildly affected by final state interactions, is mostly due to nucleon-nucleon correlations, encoded in the continuum component of the hole spectral function.
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Sobczyk, J. E., Rocco, N., & Nieves, J. (2019). Polarization of tau in quasielastic (anti)neutrino scattering: The role of spectral functions. Phys. Rev. C, 100(3), 035501–14pp.
Abstract: We present a study of the tau polarization in charged-current quasielastic (anti)neutrino-nucleus scattering. The spectral function formalism is used to compute the differential cross section and the polarization components for several kinematical setups, relevant for neutrino-oscillation experiments. The effects of the nuclear corrections in these observables are investigated by comparing the results obtained using two different realistic spectral functions, with those deduced from the relativistic global Fermi gas model, where only statistical correlations are accounted for. We show that the spectral functions, although they play an important role when predicting the differential cross sections, produce much less visible effects on the polarization components of the outgoing tau.
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