Type: Article
Publication Date: 2013-06-21
Citations: 66
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.87.113009
We study $1\ensuremath{\pi}$ production in both charged and neutral current neutrino-nucleus scattering for neutrino energies below 2 GeV. We use a theoretical model for one pion production at the nucleon level that we correct for medium effects. The results are incorporated into a cascade program that apart from production also includes the pion final state interaction inside the nucleus. Besides, in some specific channels coherent $\ensuremath{\pi}$ production is also possible and we evaluate its contribution as well. Our results for total and differential cross sections are compared with recent data from the MiniBooNE Collaboration. The model provides an overall acceptable description of the data, better for neutral-current than for charged-current channels, although the theory is systematically below the data. Differential cross sections, folded with the full neutrino flux, show that most of the missing pions lie in the forward direction and at high energies.