Uncertainties in neutrino oscillation parameter sensitivity due to resonance processes at NOνA

Abstract

The long baseline (LBL) neutrino experiments use heavy nuclear targets for neutrino scattering in which nuclear effects give rise to complications in measuring the neutrino oscillation parameters up to high precision. These nuclear effects are not yet fully understood and therefore need to be quantified as they contribute to the systematic uncertainties. Precision reconstruction of neutrino energy is one of the main components in measuring the oscillation parameters, and it is required that the neutrino energy is reconstructed with very high precision. In this work, we investigate the effects of the resonance (RES) interaction process using two models for carbon target for [Formula: see text] disappearance channel of the NO[Formula: see text]A experiment, on neutrino-nucleus scattering cross-section, events, and neutrino oscillation parameter sensitivity. We also incorporate the realistic detector specifications of NO[Formula: see text]A. To quantify the systematic uncertainties due to RES interactions, we compare the cross-sections, events, and sensitivity analysis for two models of RES processes—Rein–Sehgal (RS) and Berger–Sehgal (BS), and comment on which model produces more precision. We observe that RES processes contribute significantly, and should be included carefully in models while extracting neutrino oscillation parameters.