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Sajjad Athar, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Sajjad Athar, M..

Measurement of electron neutrino and antineutrino cross sections at low momentum transfer

Accelerator based neutrino oscillation experiments seek to measure the relative number of electron and muon (anti)neutrinos at different 𝐿/𝐸 values. However high statistics studies of neutrino interactions are almost exclusively measured using muon (anti)neutrinos since the dominant flavor of neutrinos produced by accelerator based beams are of the muon type. This work reports new measurements of electron (anti)neutrinos interactions in hydrocarbon, obtained by strongly suppressing backgrounds initiated by muon flavor (anti)neutrinos. Double differential cross sections as a function of visible energy transfer, 𝐸 avail , and transverse momentum transfer, 𝑝 𝑇 , or three momentum transfer, 𝑞 3 are presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

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

In $\nu /\bar{\nu }$–nucleon/nucleus interactions shallow inelastic scattering ($\text{SIS}$) is technically defined in terms of the four-momentum transfer to the hadronic system as non-resonant meson production with $Q^2 \lessapprox 1 \text {GeV}^2$. 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 \text{GeV}^2$ limit, non-resonant interactions begin to take place with quarks within the nucleon indicating the start of deep inelastic scattering ($\text{DIS}$). To essentially separate this resonant plus non-resonant meson production from $\text{DIS}$ quark-fragmented meson production, a cut of 2 $\text{GeV}$ in W of the interactions is generally introduced. However, since experimentally mesons from resonance decay cannot be separated from non-resonant produced mesons, $\text{SIS}$ 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 $W \lessapprox 2 \text{GeV}$ inclusive meson production with $W \gtrapprox (M_N + M_π)$ and all $Q^2$ is here defined as $\text{SIS}$, while for $W \gtrapprox 2 \text {GeV}$, the kinematic region with $Q^2 \gtrapprox 1 \text{GeV}^2$ is defined as DIS$\text{DIS}$degrees of attention from the community. While the theoretical/phenomenological study of $\nu$–nucleon and $\nu$–nucleus $\text{DIS}$ scattering is advanced, such studies of a large portion of the $\text{SIS}$ region, particularly the $\text{SIS}$ to $\text{DIS}$ transition region, have hardly begun. Experimentally, the $\text{SIS}$ and the $\text{DIS}$ regions for $\nu$–nucleon scattering have minimal results and only in the experimental study of the $\nu$–nucleus $\text{DIS}$ region are there significant results for some nuclei. Inasmuch as current and future neutrino oscillation experiments have contributions from both higher $W \text{SIS}$ and $\text{DIS}$ kinematic regions and these regions are in need of both considerable theoretical and experimental study, this review will concentrate on these $\text{SIS}$ to $\text{DIS}$ transition and $\text{DIS}$ kinematic regions surveying our knowledge and the current challenges.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Snowmass 2021 LoI: Neutrino-induced Shallow- and Deep-Inelastic Scattering

In neutrino interactions with nucleons and nuclei, Shallow Inelastic Scattering (SIS) refers to processes, dominated by non-resonant contributions, in the kinematic region where $Q^2$ is small and the invariant mass of the hadronic system, $W$, is above the pion production threshold. The extremely rich science of this complex region, poorly understood both theoretically and experimentally, encompasses the transition from interactions described in terms of hadronic degrees of freedom to interactions with quarks and gluons described by perturbative QCD. Since a large fraction of events in NOvA and DUNE, and in atmospheric neutrino measurements such as IceCube-Upgrade, KM3NeT, Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande, are from this SIS region, there is a definite need to improve our knowledge of this physics. This LoI summarizes the current understandings of the SIS physics and a series of proposals for the path to forward.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Weak structure functions in $\nu_l-N$ and $\nu_l-A$ scattering with nonperturbative and higher order perturbative QCD effects

We study the effect of various perturbative and nonperturbative QCD corrections on the free nucleon structure functions [FiNWI(x,Q2);i=1–3] and their implications in the determination of nuclear structure functions. The evaluation of the nucleon structure functions has been performed by using the MMHT 2014 parton distribution functions (PDFs) parametrization, and the target mass correction (TMC) and higher twist (HT) effects are incorporated following the works of Schienbein et al. and Dasgupta et al., respectively. These nucleon structure functions are taken as input in the determination of nuclear structure functions. The numerical calculations for the νl/ν¯l-A deep inelastic scattering (DIS) process have been performed by incorporating the nuclear medium effects like Fermi motion, binding energy, nucleon correlations, mesonic contributions, shadowing, and antishadowing in several nuclear targets such as carbon, polystyrene scintillator, iron, and lead, which are being used in MINERνA, and in argon nuclei, which is relevant for the ArgoNeuT and DUNE experiments. The differential scattering cross sections d2σAWIdxdy and (dσAWIdx/dσCHWIdx) have also been studied in the kinematic region of the MINERνA experiment. The theoretical results are compared with the recent experimental data of MINERνA and the earlier data of the NuTeV, CCFR, CDHSW, and CHORUS Collaborations. Moreover, a comparative analysis of the present results for the ratio (dσAWIdx/dσCHWIdx), and the results from the Monte Carlo (MC) generator GENIE and other phenomenological models of Bodek and Yang, and Cloet et al., has been performed in the context of the MINERνA experiment. The predictions have also been made for the ν¯l-A cross section relevant for the MINERνA experiment.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Photon induced $K\Lambda $ production on the proton at $E_{\gamma} < 3$ GeV

The associated photoproduction of $K\Lambda$ from the proton for $E_{\gamma} < 3$ GeV is studied using an isobar model in which the non-resonant contributions corresponding to $s$, $t$, $u$ channel diagrams are obtained from a non-linear sigma model with chiral SU(3) symmetry. The model also predicts a contact term and its coupling strength in a natural way to preserve gauge symmetry. The parameters used are the pion decay constant $f_{\pi}$, vector and axial vector current couplings of the baryon octet in terms of the symmetric and antisymmetric couplings $D$ and $F$. In the non-resonant sector, the model is almost parameter free except a common cut-off parameter $\Lambda_{B}$, to describe the hadronic form factors at the strong kaon-nucleon-hyperon($KN\Lambda$) vertices. In the resonance sector, contribution from the various nucleon resonances($R$) in the $s$ channel, hyperon resonances($Y^{*}$) in the $u$ channel, and the kaon resonances($K^{*}$ and $K_{1}$) in the $t$ channel, which are present in the PDG having spin $\le \frac{3}{2}$ and mass $<2$ GeV with significant branching ratio in $K\Lambda$ decay mode have been considered. In the case of the nucleon resonances($R$), the couplings $\gamma NR$ at the electromagnetic vertices are determined in terms of the helicity amplitudes and the $RK\Lambda$ couplings at the strong vertices are determined by the partial decay width of the resonances($R$) decaying to $K\Lambda$. The strong and the electromagnetic couplings of $u$ and $t$ channel resonances are fitted to reproduce the experimental data of CLAS and SAPHIR. The numerical results are presented for the total and differential scattering cross sections and are compared with the available experimental data from CLAS and SAPHIR as well as with some of the recent theoretical models.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗