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# Neutrino Interactions at Low and Medium Energies

## 1 Introduction

As I mentioned in my previous talk there are many calculations available for low and intermediate energy neutrino interactions. Some of them have been compared with experimental data providing tests for theoretical models (parton model, neutral currents, …) and were useful in extracting parameters (Weinberg angle, $`V_{cs}`$, …). Other processes were calculated at the level of our theoretical understanding and are still waiting to be compared with data. In some cases, the comparisons are necessary for the correct interpretation of the results.

The topics that I will cover are the following:

1. Cross sections produced by $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ neutrinos, including threshold effects for the $`\tau `$–lepton.
2. The main reactions to be discussed are

* Deep inelastic scattering
    * Resonance production
    $`I=3/2`$ ($`\mathrm{\Delta }`$–resonance)
    $`I=1/2`$ ($`P_{11},S_{11}`$ resonances)
    * Quasi–elastic Scattering
3. I will cover cross sections on free protons and loosely–bound neutrons, as well as reactions with medium–heavy nuclei as targets. The nuclei bring in additional corrections whose origin is different for each of the above reactions.
4. At the end, I will mention the ionization of atoms by neutrinos with energies in the keV range.

My recent work was done in collaboration with L. Pasquali and J.Y. Yu , where you can find more details.

## 2 Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS)

The general structure of the differential cross section is well known. New terms appear when we keep the masses of heavy leptons which are important for reactions induced by $`\tau `$–neutrinos. The hadronic tensor includes now two additional structure functions

$`W_{\mu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`g_{\mu \nu }F_1(x,Q^2)+{\displaystyle \frac{p_{1\mu }p_{1\nu }}{p_1q}}F_2(x,Q^2)`$
$``$ $`iϵ_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }{\displaystyle \frac{p_1^\rho q^\sigma }{2p_1q}}F_3(x,Q^2)`$
$`+`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{q_\mu q_\nu }{p_1q}}F_4(x,Q^2)`$
$`+`$ $`(p_{1\mu }q_\nu +p_{1\nu }q_\mu )F_5(x,Q^2).`$
with $`p_1`$ and $`q`$ the momenta of the target nucleon and the exchanged current, respectively. We use the standard notation with $`x=\frac{Q^2}{2M\nu },Q^2=q^2`$, $`y=\frac{\nu }{E_\nu }`$ and $`ϵ_{\mu \nu \rho \sigma }`$ the antisymmetric tensor.

The differential cross section has the general form

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}\sigma ^{\nu ,\overline{\nu }}}{\mathrm{d}x\mathrm{d}y}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G_F^2M_NE_\nu }{\pi }}[y(xy+{\displaystyle \frac{m_l^2}{2E_\nu M_N}})F_1`$
$`+`$ $`\left(1y{\displaystyle \frac{M_Nxy}{2E_\nu }}{\displaystyle \frac{m_l^2}{4E_\nu ^2}}\right)F_2`$
$`\pm `$ $`\left(xy(1{\displaystyle \frac{y}{2}})y{\displaystyle \frac{m_l^2}{4M_NE_\nu }}\right)F_3`$
$`+`$ $`\left(xy{\displaystyle \frac{m_l^2}{2M_NE_\nu }}+{\displaystyle \frac{m_l^4}{4M_N^2E_\nu ^2}}\right)F_4`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{m_l^2}{2M_NE_\nu }}F_5],`$
$`x=\frac{Q^2}{2M_N\nu }`$ with $`\nu =E_\nu E_l`$, $`Q^2=2M_NE_\nu xy`$, and $`M_N`$ with $`N=p,n`$ the nucleon mass. The two signs $`\pm F_3(x)`$ correspond to $`\nu `$– and $`\overline{\nu }`$–nucleon scattering. For the structure functions we use the relations

$`2xF_1`$ $`=`$ $`F_2\mathrm{Callan}\mathrm{Gross}\mathrm{relation}`$
$`F_4`$ $`=`$ $`0\mathrm{Albright}\mathrm{Jarlskog}\mathrm{relation}\text{[3]}`$
$`xF_5`$ $`=`$ $`F_2\mathrm{spin}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{constituents}`$
which follow from the scattering on free quarks. The structure functions $`F_2,F_3`$ in terms of quark distributions are known. For $`\nu _\mu `$ reactions we use structure functions above the charm threshold and for $`\nu _\tau `$ those below the charm threshold.

As a warm up, I show in Fig. (1) the total cross section at low and medium energies as the incoherent sum of quasi–elastic, resonance production and deep inelastic scattering. At very low energies $`E_\nu <1.0`$ GeV the quasi–elastic reaction (QE) dominates, then opens the channel for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$–production and other resonances (RES) and finally appear multi–particle final states (DIS). The dynamics for each process and the corrections are different and we shall discuss them separately. The contributions of quasi-elastic scattering and resonances are clearly evident in the data up to $``$ 2 GeV. They produce a peculiar structure, looking like a step. Above this energy the charged current cross sections are known to rise linearly with energy.

Fig. (2) shows the total cross sections for $`E_\nu <6`$ GeV with the data from Ref . Above $`2\mathrm{GeV}`$ there is a linear rise of the cross section with $`E_\nu `$. Their slopes have been measured precisely up to $`300\mathrm{GeV}`$.

In addition, I show in Fig. (3) the slopes of the total cross section for $`\nu _\mu `$’s and $`\nu _\tau `$’s, where the threshold dependence is now evident.

### 2.1 Nuclear Corrections to DIS

Neutrino reactions have also been measured in nuclei where the need for corrections became evident. For deep inelastic scattering nuclear corrections are incorporated by modifying the parton distribution functions. We use two sets of distribution functions.

1. The $`\chi ^2`$ analysis of Hirai, Kumano and Mijama , and
2. the evolution analysis of Eskola, Kokhinen and Solgado .

The analyses include shadowing, anti–shadowing, EMC–effect and Fermi-motion effects. The same parton distributions were used for $`\nu _\mu `$ and $`\nu _\tau `$ reactions.

Fig. (4) compares the experimental slopes with theoretical calculation. The dashed curve is without nuclear corrections and the solid curve includes nuclear corrections . The calculated cross sections and the data agree with each other. For the total cross sections the nuclear correlations are small as shown in Figure (4).

We mention briefly that particle multiplicities and their momentum distributions can be measured for each structure function separately. Subsequently, they can be used to calculate multiplicities and their properties in $`\nu _\tau `$ induced reactions.

## 3 Resonance Production

The production of the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$–resonance has been calculated in terms of the form factors. Formulas are available for triple differential decays

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}\sigma }{\mathrm{d}Q^2\mathrm{d}W\mathrm{d}\mathrm{cos}\theta _\pi }}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{G_F^2}{16\pi M_N^2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}}[K_i\stackrel{~}{W}_i`$
$``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}K_iD_i(3\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _\pi 1)],`$
as well as integrated cross–sections. We considered two models, one for $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$–production and another one for the excitation of the $`I=1/2`$ resonances: $`P_{11},S_{11}`$. The $`K_i`$’s are kinematic factors and the $`W_i`$’s contain the hadronic structure in terms of the form factors. For the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$–resonance the following form factors were used

$`C_3^V(Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{2.05}{(1+\frac{Q^2}{0.54\mathrm{GeV}^2})^2}}`$
$`C_4^V(Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{M_N}{M_\mathrm{\Delta }}}C_3^V`$
$`C_5^V(Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$
$`C_k^A(Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`C_k(0)\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{a_kQ^2}{b_k+Q^2}}\right)\left(1+{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{M_A^2}}\right)^2`$
$`C_6^A(Q^2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g_\mathrm{\Delta }f_\pi }{2\sqrt{3}M_N}}{\displaystyle \frac{M^2}{m_\pi ^2+Q^2}}`$
with $`k=3,4,5,C_3^A(0)=0,C_4^A(0)=0.3,C_5^A(0)=1.2`$, $`a_4=a_5=1.21,b_4=b_5=2\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ and the axial mass $`M_A=1.0\mathrm{GeV}`$. The rest of the formalism can be found in Ref. .

For the charged current cross–section there are data for three channels and we show the comparison with our calculation. In Figures (5)–(7), the agreement at low energies is at the 10$`\%`$ level. The experimental points have substantial errors which should be improved.

### 3.1 Production of Nuclear Targets

The Long Baseline (LBL) experiments measure reactions on nuclear targets, like $`{}_{8}{}^{}\mathrm{O}_{}^{16},_{18}\mathrm{Ar}^{40}`$ and $`{}_{26}{}^{}\mathrm{Fe}_{}^{56}`$. To a first approximation the cross–section is the incoherent sum of protons and neutrons. Nuclear effects are now relevant. The neutrinos scatter throughout the nucleus with a probability proportional to the nuclear density, which is considered to be isoscalar (the average cross–section on neutrons and protons). The neutrino–nucleon cross–section is affected

1. by the Fermi–motion of the nuclei, which shifts the energy and
2. by the Pauli–suppression (Pauli–blocking), i.e. when a nucleon receives a small momentum transfer, below the Fermi–sea, it cannot recoil because the state to which it must go is already occupied.

These two effects are frequently taken into account by using nuclear parameters. The Pauli suppression, for instance, is 3-5$`\%`$ for $`{}_{26}{}^{}Fe^{56}`$.

When the pion is observed there is a third effect. As the pions wander through the nucleus, they scatter performing a random walk. We view the scattering as a two step process .

step 1: The reaction

$`\nu +{\displaystyle \frac{(n+p)}{2}}l+{\displaystyle \frac{(n^{}+p^{})}{2}}+\pi ^{\pm ,0}`$
takes places in the nucleus being, proportional to the density profile of the nucleus. For the charge density for $`{}_{8}{}^{}\mathrm{O}_{}^{16}`$ we use the Harmonic Oscillator Model and for $`{}_{18}{}^{}\mathrm{Ar}_{}^{40}`$, $`{}_{26}{}^{}\mathrm{Fe}_{}^{56}`$ the Fermi model. We denote this original production cross sections by $`\mathrm{d}\sigma (N_T;+),\mathrm{d}\sigma (N_T;0),\mathrm{d}\sigma (N_T;)`$.

step 2: The subsequent random walk process is analyzed as a multiple scattering of $`\pi `$’s from nucleons (protons and neutrons) using the well known low energy pion–nucleon cross–sections. At each scattering the pions may retain or exchange their charge, and the original population of pion changes. The phenomenon is described by a transition matrix $`M`$ as follows

$`\left(\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{d}\sigma (_ZT^A;+)\\ \mathrm{d}\sigma (_ZT^A;0)\\ \mathrm{d}\sigma (_ZT^A;)\end{array}\right)`$ $`=`$ $`M\left(\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{d}\sigma (N_T;+)\\ \mathrm{d}\sigma (N_T;0)\\ \mathrm{d}\sigma (N_T;)\end{array}\right).`$ (7)
The transition matrix has a simpler form dictated by isospin conservation

$`M=A\left(\begin{array}{ccc}1cd& d& c\\ d& 12d& d\\ c& d& 1cd\end{array}\right)`$ (11)
with $`c`$ and $`d`$ being determined by the random walk process .

The overall factor A contains the Pauli suppression factor $`g(w,Q^2)`$ and the transport function $`f(\lambda )`$ with the eigenvalue $`\lambda =1,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1}/2`$ and $`5/6`$. This is a model developed some time ago  for the interpretation of neutral current events (ANP model). It has been tested in a few cases.

In the ANP model the transition matrix on iron is

$`M(_{26}Fe^{56})=A\left(\begin{array}{ccc}0.72& 0.19& 0.09\\ 0.19& 0.61& 0.19\\ 0.09& 0.19& 0.72\end{array}\right),`$ (15)
where $`A=g(W,Q^2)f(\lambda =1)`$ with $`g(M_\mathrm{\Delta },Q^2)0.96`$ and $`f(\lambda =1)=0.625`$. I will give two examples to demonstrate how the corrections work.

Example 1: We consider a neutrino beam of $`E_\nu =1.5`$ GeV. We take the neutral current cross sections

$`\sigma (\nu p\nu n\pi ^+)`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma (\nu n\nu p\pi ^{})`$
$`=`$ $`0.064\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$
$`\sigma (\nu p\nu p\pi ^0)`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma (\nu n\nu n\pi ^0)`$
$`=`$ $`0.125\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$
The relations between neutron and proton cross section follow from charge symmetry. Applying the formalism described in step 2, I obtain

$`2\times d\sigma (T;\pi ^+)`$ $`=`$ $`[A(0.72+0.09)\times 0.064`$
$`+`$ $`A(0.19\times 0.125)]\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$
$`=`$ $`A(0.052+0.024)\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$
$`=`$ $`A\times 0.075\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$
and similarly

$`2\times d\sigma (T;\pi ^0)`$ $`=`$ $`[A(0.19\times 2\times 0.064)`$
$`+`$ $`A(0.62\times 0.125)]\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$
$`=`$ $`A(0.024+0.078)\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$
$`=`$ $`A\times 0.10\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2.`$
We notice that, beyond the overall factor $`A`$, the nuclear corrections enhance the $`\pi ^\pm `$ channel and decrease the $`\pi ^0`$ channel.

Example 2: We consider next a realistic case in the Gargamelle experiment where they measured the production of pions in a enriched Freon target. The average energy of the neutrino beam was low, in the $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-resonance region. They observed the ratio :

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^+}{\pi ^0}}=2.3\pm 0.9.`$
The cross sections for $`E_\nu =2.0\mathrm{GeV}`$ in units of $`10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ are

$`\sigma (\nu p\mu ^{}p\pi ^+)`$ $`=`$ $`0.70\pm 0.10`$
$`\sigma (\nu n\mu ^{}p\pi ^0)`$ $`=`$ $`0.20\pm 0.05`$
$`\sigma (\nu n\mu ^{}n\pi ^+)`$ $`=`$ $`0.20\pm 0.07.`$
Consequently the ratio is $`\left(\frac{\pi ^+}{\pi ^0}\right)=0.45`$, far away from the result of Gargamelle. Including nuclear corrections brings the ratio in the proximity of the experimental number. The pion yields after nuclear corrections are given by

$`\mathrm{d}\sigma (Br,\pi ^+)`$ $`=`$ $`A\times (0.78\times 0.90+0.16\times 0.20)`$
$`=`$ $`A\times 0.74`$
$`\mathrm{d}\sigma (Br,\pi ^0)`$ $`=`$ $`A\times (0.16\times 0.90+0.68\times 0.20)`$
$`=`$ $`A\times 0.28`$
in units of $`10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2`$ and $`Br`$ denoting the nuclear content of the target. The ratio now is

$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{\pi ^+}{\pi ^0}}\right)_{nucl.corr.}={\displaystyle \frac{0.74}{0.28}}=2.64`$
in good agreement with the Gargamelle measurement.

There are several other cases where comparisons were reported. These examples  include absorption and charge exchange effects and find good agreement. It will be interesting to summarize these comparisons and to include the results of electroproduction experiments in order to find out how well the model works. There is also another model  where nuclear effects are incorporated in the scattering from a nuclear potential. In this model particle absorption is included but there are no estimates of charge exchange effects.

### 3.2 Results

We mentioned already the comparisons in Figures (5)–(7) where the integrated cross sections for the production of resonances $`\mathrm{\Delta }(1232),P_{11}(1440)`$ and $`S_{11}(1535)`$ are compared with the available data. The agreement between theory and experiments is good in the low energy regions where the experimental errors are small. At higher energies the errors are large and improvements are expected from the new experiments.

In Figure (8), I show the cross sections for two neutral current reactions with the axial vector mass $`m_a=1\mathrm{GeV}`$. In addition we calculated the differential cross sections $`\frac{d\sigma }{dE_\pi }`$. In Fig. (9) we show the spectrum from $`\pi ^+`$’s on an Oxygen target and for a neutrino energy $`E_\nu =1.5GeV`$. The dotted curve is without nuclear corrections, the broken line includes Pauli blocking.

Finally the solid curve includes absorption and charge-exchange corrections. The curves in Figure (10) are the same as in Figure (9), but now for the production of $`\pi ^0`$’s. We notice that the nuclear corrections are small for $`\pi ^+`$ production and substantial for $`\pi ^0`$’s.

Now, since the neutrino beams peak at very low energy $`E_\nu =1.5`$ GeV, the single pion channels play an important role and should be studied in the experiments. In fact the experiments should try to confirm or disprove the theoretical calculations.

## 4 Benchmarks

It is interesting and important to provide some benchmark features of the calculations. For resonance production the invariant mass distribution of the final hadrons provide an outstanding feature. In Figure (11), I show the mass distribution $`\mathrm{d}\sigma /\mathrm{d}W`$ for the dominant reactions and for $`E_\nu =1.0\mathrm{GeV}`$ and $`W`$ is the pion-nucleon invariant mass. The cross sections were integrated over all values of $`Q^2`$, which appear in the form factors.

As a second benchmark I present several relations which are model independent. The cross sections are frequently calculated on proton and neutron targets. The experiments, however, are carried out in nuclear targets, where as, we described, nuclear corrections are significant.

During the conference, it became evident to me that we know so many properties of neutrino interactions that several ratios of neutral to charged current cross sections can be determined without making the assumption of single nucleon interactions. Instead we consider the scattering of the current from the $`\underset{¯}{completenucleus}`$ leading to a final pion and a recoiling hadronic system (perhaps a recoiling new nucleus) with isospin $`I=0,1`$ or $`2`$. Using conventional methods we can derive several relations, which I describe.

We define the cross sections on isoscalar targets

$`\sigma _{}^{ch}`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma (\nu _\mu +(I=0)\mu ^{}+\pi ^++x_1)`$
$`+`$ $`\sigma (\nu _\mu +(I=0)\mu ^{}+\pi ^{}+x_2)`$
$`\sigma _{}^0`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma (\nu _\mu +(I=0)\mu ^{}+\pi ^0+x_3)`$
$`\sigma _0^0`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma (\nu _\mu +(I=0)\nu _\mu +\pi ^0+x_4)`$
with $`x_1,\mathrm{},x_4`$ the undetected hadronic states. We also define $`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\sigma _{}^{ch}\sigma _{}^0`$ and for antineutrino $`\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}=\sigma _+^{ch}\sigma _+^0`$. Then the ratio

$`R_0={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _0^0+\overline{\sigma }_0^0}{(\mathrm{\Sigma }+\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }})}}=0.37`$
is precisely determined with an uncertainty of at most $`15\%`$.

An alternative ratio is obtained by adding neutrino and antineutrino cross section without observing the final hadronic states

$`R_1={\displaystyle \frac{\sigma _0+\overline{\sigma _0}}{\sigma _{}+\sigma _+}}`$
An estimate of the ratio in the high energy region gives the value $`R_1=0.42`$ with a small uncertainty of $`5\%`$. A third ratio of this kind is the PW-relation .

Other ratios and the method which leads to them are included in a recent article .

It is important to use model independent relations or cross sections which automatically include nuclear effects. The reasons for this is to avoid misinterpretation of the phenomena. Among the possible mistakes are the following:

1. The misidentification of charge pions as muons may interpret hadronic mixing as neutrino mixing.
2. The mixing of $`\pi ^0`$’s with charged pions modifies the pion yield. This influences the estimate of how many $`\pi ^0`$’s are produced by neutral currents and may lead to the interpretation that the missing $`\pi ^0`$’s are explained as an oscillation of active to sterile neutrinos.

## 5 Quasi–elastic Scattering

The reactions

$`\nu +n`$ $``$ $`\mu ^{}+p`$
$`\overline{\nu }+p`$ $``$ $`\mu ^++n`$
have been calculated in terms of form factors. The quasi–elastic cross sections reach constant value at $`E_\nu 1\mathrm{GeV}`$ and have been used for determining the fluxes of neutrino or antineutrino beams. There are also measurements of these reactions.

We show in Figure (12) the experimental data together with theoretical calculations. We show two curves with the dotted curve representing the scattering on free neutrons and protons, while the solid curves include the reduction introduced by Pauli blocking . The nuclear corrections are small, i.e. of the order of $`10\%`$.

## 6 Ionization of Atoms by Neutrinos

As a last topic, I will discuss a very low energy reaction where a beam of $`\overline{\nu }_e`$ with an energy $`E_{\overline{\nu }}12\mathrm{keV}`$ is produced in tritium decays

$`{}_{}{}^{3}H^3He+e^{}+\overline{\nu }_e.`$
The antineutrinos have very low energies and the oscillation length is greatly reduced. For the presently favored solution (Large Mixing Angle solution) of the solar neutrino problem the oscillation length is of the order of a few hundred meters or less. We calculated the ionization cross section for H, He and Ne atoms and found that $`\sigma _{ionization}^{\overline{\nu }}/Z`$ (a few)$`\times 10^{47}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. Using realistic wave functions we found that the cross section for $`E_{\overline{\nu }}>10\mathrm{keV}`$ is the incoherent sum of contributions from individual electrons. The cross section is small but there is interest for measuring the ionization with an intensive tritium source . Very low energy neutrino interactions are a terra incognita and may lead to surprises.

## 7 Summary

I presented cross sections for several neutrino induced reactions from very low energies up to the GeV region. Most of the calculations are reliable and in the cases where experimental data are available the agreement is rather good. In the threshold regions, there are uncertainties and detailed studies will show how important they are when integrated over the neutrino spectrum. Additional corrections appear for nuclear targets. For quasi–elastic and deep inelastic scattering and for the energies we consider, nuclear corrections are small. We found large nuclear corrections for single pion production, coming from absorption and charge exchange interactions of the pions. We studied a few channels in the ANP–Model where the corrections are substantial and modify the initial neutrino–nucleon interactions in right direction.

In order to avoid these uncertainties, I considered ratios of neutral to charged current cross sections where the largest contribution is determined by symmetry considerations and smaller terms are estimated from data and/or theoretical calculations. For the LBL experiments the yields for the ratios should increase with the distance, because the $`\tau `$–neutrinos can not contribute to the charged current cross sections, since their energy is below the $`\tau `$–lepton threshold.

We hope that these calculations will be useful for the analysis and interpretation of the new experiments, especially those looking for oscillation phenomena.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Dr. J.-Y. Yu for helping me in the preparation of this article.