The effects of nuclear re-interactions in the quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering are investigated with a phenomenological model. We found that the nuclear responses are lowered and their maxima are shifted towards higher excitation energies. This is reflected on the total neutrino-nucleus cross section in a general reduction of about 15% for neutrino energies above 300 MeV.
An accurate description of the nuclear response functions for neutrino scattering in the Gev region is essential for the interpretation of present and future neutrino oscillation experiments. Due to the close similarity of electromagnetic and weak sc
attering processes, we will review the status of the scaling approach and of relativistic modeling for the inclusive electron scattering response functions in the quasielastic and $Delta$-resonance regions. In particular, recent studies have been focused on scaling violations and the degree to which these imply modifications of existing predictions for neutrino reactions. We will discuss sources and magnitude of such violations, emphasizing similarities and differences between electron and neutrino reactions.
The prospects of extracting new physics signals in a coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ u$NS) process are limited by the precision with which the underlying nuclear structure physics, embedded in the weak nuclear form factor, is known.
We present microscopic nuclear structure physics calculations of charge and weak nuclear form factors and CE$ u$NS cross sections on $^{12}$C, $^{16}$O, $^{40}$Ar, $^{56}$Fe and $^{208}$Pb nuclei. We obtain the proton and neutron densities, and charge and weak form factors by solving Hartree-Fock equations with a Skyrme (SkE2) nuclear potential. We validate our approach by comparing $^{208}$Pb and $^{40}$Ar charge form factor predictions with elastic electron scattering data. In view of the worldwide interest in liquid-argon based neutrino and dark matter experiments, we pay special attention to the $^{40}$Ar nucleus and make predictions for the $^{40}$Ar weak form factor and the CE$ u$NS cross sections. Furthermore, we attempt to gauge the level of theoretical uncertainty pertaining to the description of the $^{40}$Ar form factor and CE$ u$NS cross sections by comparing relative differences between recent microscopic nuclear theory and widely-used phenomenological form factor predictions. Future precision measurements of CE$ u$NS will potentially help in constraining these nuclear structure details that will in turn improve prospects of extracting new physics.
Large-angle elastic scattering of alpha-particle and strongly-bound light nuclei at a few tens MeV/nucleon has shown the pattern of rainbow scattering. This interesting process was shown to involve a significant overlap of the two colliding nuclei, w
ith the total nuclear density well above the saturation density of normal nuclear matter (NM). For a microscopic calculation of the nucleus-nucleus potential within the folding model, we have developed a density dependent nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction based on the G-matrix interaction M3Y. Our folding analysis of the refractive 4He, 12C, and 16O elastic scattering shows consistently that the NM incompressibility K should be around 250 MeV which implies a rather soft nuclear Equation of State (EOS). To probe the symmetry part of the nuclear EOS, we have used the isovector coupling to link the isospin dependence of the proton optical potential to the cross section of (p,n) charge-exchange reactions exciting the isobaric analog states in nuclei of different mass regions. With the isospin dependence of the NN interaction fine tuned to reproduce the charge exchange data, a realistic estimate of the NM symmetry energy has been made.
Nuclear model effects in neutrino-nucleus quasielastic scattering are studied within the distorted wave impulse approximation, using a relativistic shell model to describe the nucleus, and comparing it with the relativistic Fermi gas. Both charged-cu
rrent and neutral-current processes are considered and, for the neutral-current case, the uncertainties that nuclear effects may introduce in measurements of the axial strange form-factor of the nucleon are investigated.
A previous model on inclusive charged-current quasi-elastic nuclear reactions is extended to include neutral- and charged-current nucleon emission reactions. The problem of outgoing nucleon propagation is treated by means of a Monte Carlo simulation.