Neutrino(antineutrino)–nucleus interactions in the shallow- and deep-inelastic scattering regions

Abstract

Abstract In ν / ν ̄ –nucleon/nucleus interactions shallow inelastic scattering (SIS) is technically defined in terms of the four-momentum transfer to the hadronic system as non-resonant meson production with Q 2 ⪅ 1 GeV2. This non-resonant meson production intermixes with resonant meson production in a regime of similar effective hadronic mass W of the interaction. As Q 2 grows and surpasses this ≈1 GeV2 limit, non-resonant interactions begin to take place with quarks within the nucleon indicating the start of deep inelastic scattering (DIS). To essentially separate this resonant plus non-resonant meson production from DIS quark-fragmented meson production, a cut of 2 GeV in W of the interactions is generally introduced. However, since experimentally mesons from resonance decay cannot be separated from non-resonant produced mesons, SIS for all practical purposes in this review has been defined as inclusive meson production that includes non-resonant plus resonant meson production and the interference between them. Experimentally then for W ⪅ 2 GeV inclusive meson production with W ⪆ (M N + M π ) and all Q 2 is here defined as SIS, while for W ⪆ 2 GeV, the kinematic region with Q 2 ⪆ 1 GeV2 is defined as DIS. The so defined SIS and DIS regions have received varying degrees of attention from the community. While the theoretical/phenomenological study of ν–nucleon and ν–nucleus DIS scattering is advanced, such studies of a large portion of the SIS region, particularly the SIS to DIS transition region, have hardly begun. Experimentally, the SIS and the DIS regions for ν–nucleon scattering have minimal results and only in the experimental study of the ν–nucleus DIS region are there significant results for some nuclei. Since current and future neutrino oscillation experiments have contributions from both higher W SIS and DIS kinematic regions and these regions are in need of both considerable theoretical and experimental study, this review will concentrate on these SIS to DIS transition and DIS kinematic regions surveying our knowledge and the current challenges.