Coherent pion production in neutrino-nucleus collisions

Abstract

We have investigated the neutrino induced coherent pion production reaction at low and intermediate energies including pion, nucleon and Delta(1232) resonance. Medium effects in the production mechanism and the distortion of the pion wave function are included in the calculation. We find a strong reduction of the cross section due to these effects and also substantial modifications in the energy distributions of the final pion. The dependence on the atomic number is discussed.