Cross sections for ν μ and ν ¯ μ induced pion production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA
Separate samples of charged-current pion production events representing two semi-inclusive channels ν μ –CC(π + ) and ν¯ μ –CC(π 0 ) have been obtained using neutrino and antineutrino exposures of the MINERvA detector. Distributions in kinematic variables based upon μ±-track reconstructions are analyzed and compared for the two samples. The differential cross sections for muon production angle, muon momentum, and four-momentum transfer Q 2 are reported, and cross sections versus neutrino energy are obtained. Comparisons with predictions of current neutrino event generators are used to clarify the role of the Δ(1232) and higher-mass baryon resonances in CC pion production and to show the importance of pion final-state interactions. For the ν μ –CC(π + ) [ν¯ μ –CC(π 0 )] sample, the absolute data rate is observed to lie below (above) the predictions of some of the event generators by amounts that are typically 1-to- 2σ. Furthermore, the generators are able to reproduce the shapes of the differential cross sections for all kinematic variables of either data set.