Measurement of Total and Differential Cross Sections of Neutrino and Antineutrino Coherent $\pi^\pm$ Production on Carbon

Understand

Neutrino induced coherent charged pion production on nuclei, $\overline{\nu}_\mu A\to\mu^\pm\pi^\mp A$, is a rare inelastic interaction in which the four-momentum squared transfered to the nucleus is nearly zero, leaving it intact.

• We identify such events in the scintillator of MINERvA by reconstructing |t| from the final state pion and muon momenta and by removing events with evidence of energetic nuclear recoil or production of other final state particles.
• We measure the total neutrino and antineutrino cross sections as a function of neutrino energy between 2 and 20 GeV and measure flux integrated differential cross sections as a function of $Q^2$, $E_\pi$ and $\theta_\pi$.
• The $Q^2$ dependence and equality of the neutrino and anti-neutrino cross-sections at finite $Q^2$ provide a confirmation of Adler's PCAC hypothesis.