Search

Neutrino-induced charged-current single π^{+} production in the Δ(1232) resonance region is of considerable interest to accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments. In this Letter, high statistic differential cross sections are reported for the semiexclusive reaction ν_{μ}A→μ^{-}π^{+}+ nucleon(s) on scintillator, carbon, water, iron, and lead targets recorded by MINERvA using a wideband ν_{μ} beam with ⟨E_{ν}⟩≈6  GeV. Suppression of the cross section at low Q^{2} and enhancement of low T_{π} are observed in both light and heavy nuclear targets compared with phenomenological models used in current neutrino interaction generators. The cross sections per nucleon for iron and lead compared with CH across the kinematic variables probed are 0.8 and 0.5 respectively, a scaling which is also not predicted by current generators.

The coherent pion production induced by neutrinos in nuclei is studied using a delta hole model in the local density approximation taking into account the renormalization of Delta properties in a nuclear medium. The pion absorption effects are included in an eikonal approximation. These effects give a large reduction in the total cross section. The numerical results for the total cross section are found to be consistent with recent experimental results from the K2K and MiniBooNE Collaborations and other older experiments in the intermediate energy region.