Cross sections for νμ and ν μ induced pion production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA CROSS SECTIONS for νμ and ν μ ... C. L. MCGIVERN et al.

Separate samples of charged-current pion production events representing two semi-inclusive channels νμ-CC(π+) and νμ-CC(π0) have been obtained using neutrino and antineutrino exposures of the MINERvA detector. Distributions in kinematic variables based upon μ±-track reconstructions are analyzed and compared for the two samples. The differential cross sections for muon production angle, muon momentum, and four-momentum transfer Q2 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 Δ(1232) and higher-mass baryon resonances in CC pion production and to show the importance of pion final-state interactions. For the νμ-CC(π+) [νμ-CC(π0)] 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- 2σ. However the generators are able to reproduce the shapes of the differential cross sections for all kinematic variables of either data set.