Exploring Nuclear Aspects of Neutrino Interactions in Neutrino Oscillation Experiments

Introduction

The ability of current and next generation accelerator based neutrino oscillation measurements to reach their desired sensitivity and provide new insight into the nature of our Universe requires a high level of understanding of the neutrino-nucleus interactions.

Importance of Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions

These interactions include:

• Precise estimation of the relevant cross sections
• Reconstruction of the incident neutrino energy from the measured final state particles

Incomplete understanding of these interactions can skew the reconstructed neutrino spectrum and thereby bias the extraction of fundamental oscillation parameters and searches for new physics.

Proposal Overview

This proposal exploits the similarity of electron- and neutrino-nucleus interactions. It leverages:

1. Wide phase-space exclusive electron scattering data with known beam energies
2. Neutrino scattering data in the same energy region
3. Similar nuclear targets

The goal is to test energy reconstruction methods and interaction models.

Project Goals

The ERC NeutrinoNuclei project will deliver:

• A well-constrained simulation environment
• Uncertainties of the neutrino-nuclei interaction

This aims to meet the requirements of future high-precision experiments.