Cross sections for νμ and ν¯μ induced pion production on hydrocarbon in the few-GeV region using MINERvA

Separate samples of charged-current pionproduction events representing two semi-inclusive channels νμ–CC(π+) and ν¯μ–CC(π0) have been obtained using neutrino and antineutrino exposures of the MINERvA detector. Distributions in kinematic variables based upon μ±-track reconstructions are analyzed and compared for the two samples. The differential cross sections for muon production angle, muon momentum, and four-momentumtransfer Q2 are reported, and cross sections versus neutrino energy are obtained. Comparisons with predictions of current neutrino event generatorsare used to clarify the role of the Δ(1232) and higher-mass baryon resonances in CC pionproduction and to show the importance of pionfinal-state interactions. For the νμ–CC(π+) [ν¯μ–CC(π0)] sample, the absolute data rate is observed to lie below (above) the predictions of some of the event generatorsby amounts that are typically 1-to- 2σ. Furthermore, the generators are able to reproduce the shapes of the differential cross sections for all kinematic variables of either data set.