Inclusive production of ρ 0 (770), f 0 (980) and f 2 (1270) mesons in ν μ charged current interactions

The inclusive production of the meson resonances ρ 0 (770), f 0 (980) and f 2 (1270) in neutrino–nucleus charged currentinteractions has been studied with the NOMAD detector exposed to the wide band neutrino beam generated by 450 GeV protons at the CERN SPS. For the first time the f 0 (980) meson is observed in neutrino interactions. The statistical significance of its observation is 6 standard deviations. The presence of f 2 (1270) in neutrino interactions is reliably established. The average multiplicity of these three resonances is measured as a function of several kinematic variables. The experimental results are compared to the multiplicities obtained from a simulation based on the Lund model. In addition, the average multiplicity of ρ 0 (770) in antineutrino–nucleus interactions is measured.