Measurement of Coherent Production of $\pi^\pm$ in Neutrino and Anti-Neutrino Beams on Carbon from $E_\nu$ of $1.5$ to $20$ GeV

Abstract

Neutrino-induced coherent charged pion production on nuclei, $\stackrel{(-)}{\nu}_\mu A\to\mu^\pm\pi^\mp A$ is a rare, inelastic interaction in which a small squared four-momentum $| t|$ is transferred to the recoil nucleus leaving it intact in the reaction. In the scintillator tracker of MINERvA, we remove events with evidence of particles from nuclear breakup and reconstruct $| t|$ from the final state pion and muon. We select low $| t|$ events to isolate a sample rich in coherent candidates. By selecting low $| t|$ events we produce a model-independent measurement of the differential cross section for coherent scattering of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos on carbon. We find poor agreement with the predicted kinematics in neutrino generators used by current oscillation experiments.