Assessing the accuracy of the GENIE event generator with electron scattering data: Reduced cross section and nuclear transparency

Abstract

The reduced cross sections of the semi-exclusive $(l,l'p)$ lepton scattering process can be identified with distorted nuclear spectral functions. Irrespective of the type of interaction the distorted spectral function is determined mainly by intrinsic properties of the target and the ejected nucleon interaction with residual nucleus. Thus the reduced cross sections of the neutrino and electron scattering on nuclei as functions of nucleon missing momentum and energy are similar up to Coulomb corrections. Here we demonstrate the utility of this approach by benchmarking the GENIE neutrino event generator against a broad set of semi-exclusive electron scattering data for carbon target. We observe persistent disagreements between the generator predictions and data in the range of nucleon missing momenta less than 80 MeV/c. The approach presented in this paper provide a great opportunity to test better the accuracy of nuclear models of quasi-elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, employed in neutrino event generators.