Cross sections for neutrino and antineutrino 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 $ u_mu$-CC($pi^{+}$) and $bar{ u}_{mu}$-CC($pi^{0}$) have been obtained using neutrino and antineutrino exposures of the MINERvA detector. Distributions in kinematic variables based upon $mu^{pm}$-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 $Delta(1232)$ and higher-mass baryon resonances in CC pion production and to show the importance of pion final-state interactions. For the $ u_mu$-CC($pi^{+}$) ($bar{ u}_{mu}$-CC($pi^{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-2 $sigma$. However the generators are able to reproduce the shapes of the differential cross sections for all kinematic variables of either data set.