Intranuclear cascade in the interactions of neutrinos with neon nuclei

Abstract

A method is developed for separating νN interactions from interactions involving an intranuclear cascade in νNe scattering at a mean neutrino energy of 145 GeV. The fraction of events featuring a cascade is evaluated by using a sample of νNe charged-current interactions. It is found that the multiplicity of charged particles in the forward direction takes the same value for events with and without a cascade for 4<W2<550 GeV2. In the backward direction, cascade events have the charge multiplicity higher than the multiplicity for cascade-free events by 2.36 units. It is found that particles with momenta less than 2 GeV/c make a dominant contribution to the rescattering process. A depletion of the fastest particles for W2<50 GeV2 is observed, in accord with the formation-time concept.