Implications of recent MINER$\nu$A results for neutrino energy reconstruction

Abstract

Among the most important tasks of neutrino oscillation experiments is correctly estimating the parent neutrino energy from the by-products of their interactions. Large uncertainties in our current understanding of such processes can significantly hamper this effort. We explore several recent measurements made using the \mnv{} detector in the few-GeV NuMI muon neutrino beam at Fermilab: the differential cross-section vs. $Q^2$ for charged-current quasi-elastic scattering, the differential cross-sections vs. pion angle and pion kinetic energy for resonant single charged pion production, and the differential cross-sections vs. pion angle and kinetic energy for coherent pion production. We furthermore discuss their implications for energy reconstruction in oscillation measurements.