A Standard Model explanation for the excess of electron-like events in MiniBooNE

Understand

We study the dependence of neutral current (NC) neutrino-induced $\pi^0$/photon production ($\nu_\mu + A \to \nu_\mu +1\pi^0 / \gamma + X$) on the atomic number of the target nucleus, A, at 4-momentum transfers relevant to the MiniBooNE experiment: $\Delta$ resonance mass region.

• Our conclusion is based on experimental data for photon-nucleus interactions from the A2 collaboration at the Mainz MAMI accelerator.
• We work in the approximation that decays of $\Delta$ resonance unaffected by its production channel, via photon or Z boson.
• $1\pi^0+X$ production scales as A$^{2/3}$, the surface area of the nucleus.