A dependence of quasielastic charged-current neutrino-nucleus cross sections

Background: C-12 has been and is still widely used in neutrino-nucleus scattering and oscillation experiments. More recently, Ar-40 has emerged as an important nuclear target for current and future experiments. Liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) possess various advantages in measuring electroweak neutrino-nucleus cross sections. Concurrent theoretical research is an evident necessity. Purpose: Ar-40 is larger than 12C, and one expects nuclear effects to play a bigger role in reactions. We present inclusive differential and total cross section results for charged-current neutrino scattering on Ar-40 and perform a comparison with C-12, O-16, and Fe-56 targets, to find out about the A-dependent behavior of model predictions. Method: Our model starts off with a Hartree-Fock description of the nucleus, with the nucleons interacting through a mean field generated by an effective Skyrme force. Long-range correlations are introduced by means of a continuum random phase approximation approach. Further methods to improve the accuracy of model predictions are also incorporated in the calculations. Results: We present calculations for C-12, O-16, Ar-40, and Fe-56, showcasing differential cross sections over a broad range of kinematic values in the quasielastic regime. We furthermore show flux-folded results for Ar-40 and we discuss the differences between nuclear responses. Conclusions: At low incoming energies and forward scattering we identify an enhancement in the Ar-40 cross section compared to C-12, as well as in the high omega (low T mu) region across the entire studied E-nu range. The contribution to the folded cross section of the reaction strength at values of. lower than 50 MeV for forward scattering is sizable.