First measurement of neutron capture multiplicity in neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielasticlike interactions using an accelerator neutrino beam



Abe, K, Abe, S, Akutsu, R, Alarakia-Charles, H, Hakim, YI Alj, Monsalve, S Alonso, Anthony, L, Aoki, S, Apte, KA, Arai, T
et al (show 387 more authors) (2025) First measurement of neutron capture multiplicity in neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielasticlike interactions using an accelerator neutrino beam PHYSICAL REVIEW D, 112 (3). pp. 1-26. ISSN 2470-0010, 2470-0029

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Abstract

We report the first measurement of neutron capture multiplicity in neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielasticlike interactions at the gadolinium-loaded Super-Kamiokande detector using the T2K neutrino beam, which has a peak energy of about 0.6 GeV. A total of 30 neutral-current quasielasticlike event candidates were selected from T2K data corresponding to an exposure of 1.76 × 1020 protons on target. The γ raysignals resulting from neutron captures were identified using a neural network. The flux-averaged mean neutron capture multiplicity was measured to be 1.37 0.33ðstat:Þþ0.17 −0.27 (syst:), which is compatible within 2.3 sigma than predictions obtained using our nominal simulation. We discuss potential sources of systematic uncertainty in the prediction and demonstrate that a significant portion of this discrepancy arises from the modeling of hadron-nucleus interactions in the detector medium.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: 5106 Nuclear and Plasma Physics, 51 Physical Sciences
Divisions: Faculty of Science & Engineering
Faculty of Science & Engineering > School of Physical Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 12 Aug 2025 09:34
Last Modified: 16 Jun 2026 07:11
DOI: 10.1103/qh28-4znk
Open Access URL: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/qh28...
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3194041
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