Speaker
Description
A neutrino (or an anti-neutrino) can interact with an entire nucleus coherently (this means that the target nucleus has to stay intact after the interaction) and produce a pion - we call such an interaction coherent pion production. The interaction can either be mediated by a Z boson (neutral current) or a W boson (charged current). This process is not well understood theoretically. Additionally, the neutral current channel can be a background source to the electron neutrino appearance measurements. The Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment has previously published the first sub-GeV charged current coherent pion production (CC-COH) measurement using a 0.6 GeV muon neutrino beam. Since then, T2K has collected roughly twice the muon neutrino data and an equivalent amount of muon anti-neutrino data. The detector reconstruction and the modelling of neutrino interactions have also been greatly improved. An improved muon neutrino induced CC-COH measurement (compared to the previously published T2K result) and the first sub-GeV muon anti-neutrino induced CC-COH measurement are in progress. This talk will describe the challenges associated with measuring the muon neutrino and anti-neutrino induced CC-COH cross-sections and how T2K addresses these issues.
