Neutrino-nucleus scattering is a critical input to present and future neutrino experiments. Uncertainties related to νA cross sections make a substantial contribution to the systematic-error budgets of, for example, T2K and NOνA, while hadronisation uncertainties need to be addressed in sterile-neutrino-search experiments such as MicroBooNE.
The future sensitivity of DUNE and Hyper-K will be no less sensitive to our understanding of νA scattering. The statistical weight of the data sets collected by each of these experiments will be such that uncertainties on the cross-section themselves and the uncertainty on the νe A to νμ A cross-section ratio must be reduced to the percent level. Such precise knowledge is required not only to manage the overall systematic uncertainty but also to avoid biases in the oscillation parameters extracted from the data. Evidence for CP-invariance violation (CPiV) will be sought by measuring the rate of νe appearance in a νμ beam. Therefore, a lack of understanding of νe A scattering will be a pernicious source of bias or uncertainty in the interpretation of any evidence for CPiV.
The measurement, theoretical understanding and phenomenological description of νA scattering are each challenging. To understand νA scattering in sufficient detail for the future neutrino-physics programme to reach its full potential will require the effective collaboration of experimenters, theorists and phenomenologists. Indeed, in the energy range of interest, the combined expertise of nuclear and particle theorists and phenomenologists will be required. Such a collaboration is also likely to generate new insights into long-range QCD and nuclear phenomena.
The goals of the workshop will be to:
- Take stock of the current status of , νA scattering data, the nuclear and particle theory through which it is understood and the phenomenological description of the cross sections and hadronic final states;
- Discuss the programme of measurement, theory and phenomenology required to develop an understanding commensurate with the future neutrino-physics programme; and to
- Evaluate the path towards “global fits” that can be used to make reliable predictions of neutrino-nucleus scattering.
The workshop will be organised jointly by the IPPP and NuSTEC and will include discussion, and appropriate development, of the NuSTEC white paper on neutrino scattering. The desired output of the workshop is a short document in which the status of the field is briefly reviewed and the way forward — experimental, theoretical and phenomenological — is outlined.
