Phenomenological Chiral Effective Field Theory for Neutrino Event Generators

Abstract

Single-pion production is a crucial interaction channel for accelerator-based neutrino experiments, which rely on neutrino event generators for its cross sections. However, no model implemented in current generators provides a consistent and systematically improvable description of the resonance region. In this work, we develop a phenomenological chiral effective field theory model of pion production, built from nucleons, pions, and the $Δ(1232)$ with consistent, spin 3/2, gauge-invariant couplings, and we implement it in a fully automated pipeline from the Lagrangian to events using FeynRules, UFO 2.0, and Sherpa. We validate our results with pion photoproduction data and compare against neutrino bubble chamber, MINERvA, T2K, MicroBooNE, MiniBooNE, and electron-carbon scattering data. The framework can be systematically improved by extending the Lagrangian with higher-order operators and additional degrees of freedom, and by refitting couplings and form factors as new data become available. Combined with nuclear model interfaces, our approach opens a path to resonance-region predictions that meet the needs of next-generation experiments.