Proton Transparency and Neutrino Physics: New Methods and Modeling

Authors

• CLAS Collaboration
• S. Dytman, University of Pittsburgh
• M. Betancourt, Fermi National Laboratory
• N. Steinberg, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
• L. B. Weinstein, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• A. Ashkenazi, Tel Aviv University
• J. Tena-Vidal, Tel Aviv University
• A. Papadopoulou, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)
• G. Chambers-Wall, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
• J. Smith, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
• P. Achenbach, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• J. S. Alvarado, Université Paris-Saclay
• M. J. Amaryan, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• H. Atac, Temple University
• L. Baashen, King Saud University
• N. A. Baltzell, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• L. Barion, INFN, Sezione di Ferrara
• M. Bashkanov, University of York, York
• M. Battaglieri, INFN, Sezione di Genova
• F. Benmokhtar, Duquesne University
• A. Bianconi, Universitá degli Studi di Brescia
• A. S. Biselli, Fairfield University
• M. Bondi, INFN Sezione di Genova
• F. Bossù, Université Paris-Saclay
• S. Boiarinov, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• K. -Th. Brinkmann, II Physikalisches Institut der Universitaet Giessen
• W. J. Briscoe, The George Washington University
• W. K. Brooks, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
• S. Bueltmann, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• V. D. Burkert, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• T. Cao, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• R. Capobianco, University of Connecticut
• D. S. Carman, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• J. C. Carvajal, Florida International University
• P. Chatagnon, Université Paris-Saclay
• V. Chesnokov, Lomonosov Moscow State University
• H. Chinchay, University of New Hampshire, Durham
• G. Ciullo, INFN, Sezione di Ferrara
• P. L. Cole, Lamar University
• M. Contalbrigo, INFN, Sezione di Ferrara
• A. D'Angelo, INFN, Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata
• N. Dashyan, Yerevan Physics Institute
• R. De Vita, INFN, Sezione di Genova
• M. Defurne, Université Paris-Saclay
• A. Deur, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• S. Diehl, University of Connecticut, Storrs
• C. Djalali, Ohio University
• R. Dupre, Université Paris-Saclay
• H. Egiyan, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• A. El Alaoui, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
• L. El Fassi, Mississippi State University
• L. Elouadrhiri, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• M. Farooq, University of New Hampshire
• S. Fegan, University of York
• I. P. Fernando, University of Virginia
• A. Filippi, INFN, Sezione di Torino
• G. Gavalian, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• G. P. Gilfoyle, University of Richmond
• R. W. Gothe, University of South Carolina
• L. Guo, Florida International University
• K. Hafidi, Argonne National Laboratory
• H. Hakobyan, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
• M. Hattawy, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• F. Hauenstein, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• T. B. Hayward, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• D. Heddle, Christopher Newport University
• A. Hobart, Université Paris-Saclay
• M. Holtrop, University of New Hampshire, Durham
• Yu-Chun Hung, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• Y. Ilieva, University of South Carolina
• D. G. Ireland, University of Glasgow
• E. L. Isupov, Lomonosov Moscow State University
• H. Jiang, University of Glasgow
• H. S. Jo, Kyungpook National University
• S. Joosten, Argonne National Laboratory
• M. Khandaker, Norfolk State University
• A. Kim, University of Connecticut
• F. J. Klein, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• V. Klimenko, Argonne National Laboratory
• A. Kripko, II Physikalisches Institut der Universitaet Giessen
• V. Kubarovsky, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• S. E. Kuhn, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• L. Lanza, INFN, Sezione di Roma Tor Vergata
• P. Lenisa, INFN, Sezione di Ferrara
• D. Marchand, Université Paris-Saclay
• V. Mascagna, Universitá degli Studi di Brescia
• D. Matamoros, Université Paris-Saclay
• B. McKinnon, University of Glasgow
• T. Mineeva, Universidad de La Serena
• M. Mirazita, INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
• V. Mokeev, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• C. Munoz Camacho, Université Paris-Saclay
• P. Nadel-Turonski, University of South Carolina - Columbia
• T. Nagorna, INFN, Sezione di Genova
• K. Neupane, University of South Carolina
• D. Nguyen, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• S. Niccolai, Université Paris-Saclay
• M. Osipenko, INFN, Sezione di Genova
• L. L. Pappalardo, INFN, Sezione di Ferrara
• R. Paremuzyan, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• E. Pasyuk, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• S. J. Paul, University of California Riverside
• W. Phelps, Christopher Newport University
• N. Pilleux, Argonne National Laboratory
• S. Polcher Rafael, Université Paris-Saclay
• J. W. Price, California State University, Dominguez Hills
• Y. Prok, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• T. Reed, Florida International University
• J. Richards, University of Connecticut - Storrs
• M. Ripani, INFN, Sezione di Genova
• J. Ritman, GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung GmbH
• A. A. Rusova, Lomonosov Moscow State University
• S. Schadmand, GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung GmbH
• A. Schmidt, The George Washington University
• R. A. Schumacher, Carnegie Mellon University
• M. B. C. Scott, The George Washington University
• Y. G. Sharabian, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• E. V. Shirokov, Lomonosov Moscow State University
• S. Shrestha, Temple University
• N. Sparveris, Temple University
• M. Spreafico, INFN, Sezione di Genova
• S. Stepanyan, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• I. Stakovsky, The George Washington University
• S. Strauch, University of South Carolina
• J. A. Tan, Kyungpook National University
• M. Tenorio, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• N. Trotta, University of Connecticut - Storrs
• R. Tyson, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• M. Ungaro, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• D. W. Upton, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• S. Vallarino, INFN, Sezione di Genova
• L. Venturelli, INFN, Sezione di Pavia
• T. Vittorini, INFN, Sezione di Genova
• H. Voskanyan, College of William and Mary
• E. Voutier, Université Paris-Saclay
• Y. Wang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• D. P. Watts, University of York
• U. Weerasinghe, Mississippi State University
• X. Wei, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
• M. H. Wood, Canisius University
• L. Xu, Université Paris-Saclay
• N. Zachariou, University of York

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1103/7xct-5jcp

Publication Title

Physical Review D

Volume

113

Issue

9

Pages

092007

Abstract

Extracting accurate results from neutrino oscillation and cross section experiments requires accurate simulation of the neutrino-nucleus interaction. The rescattering of outgoing hadrons (final state interactions) by the rest of the nucleus is an important component of these interactions. We present a new measurement of proton transparency (defined as the fraction of outgoing protons that emerge without significant rescattering) using electron-nucleus scattering data recorded by the CLAS detector at Jefferson Laboratory on helium, carbon, and iron targets. This analysis uses a new data-driven method to extract the transparency. It defines transparency as the ratio of electron-scattering events with a detected proton to quasi-elastic electron-scattering events where a proton should have been knocked out. Our results are consistent with previous measurements that determined the transparency from the ratio of measured events to theoretically predicted events. We find that the GENIE event generator, which is widely used by oscillation experiments to simulate neutrino-nucleus interactions, needs to better describe both the nuclear ground state and proton rescattering in order to reproduce our measured transparency ratios, especially at lower proton momenta.

Rights

© 2026 The Authors.

Published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Data Availability

Article states: "The data that support the findings of this article are openly available in Table VIII."

Original Publication Citation

Dytman, S., Betancourt, M., Steinberg, N., Weinstein, L. B., Ashkenazi, A., Tena-Vidal, J., Papadopoulou, A., Chambers-Wall, G., Smith, J., Achenbach, P., Alvarado, J. S., Amaryan, M. J., Atac, H., Baashen, L., Baltzell, N. A., Barion, L., Bashkanov, M., Battaglieri, M., Benmokhtar, F.,…Zachariou, N. (2026). Proton transparency and neutrino physics: New methods and modeling. Physical Review D, 113(9), Article 092007. https://doi.org/10.1103/7xct-5jcp

ORCID

0000-0001-5416-2900 (Weinstein), 0000-0002-5648-0256 (Amaryan), 0000-0003-2086-2807 (Hattawy), 0000-0003-2243-6836 (Kuhn), 0009-0003-7645-1289 (Tenorio), 0000-0002-1456-7572 (Upton)

Repository Citation

CLAS Collaboration; Dytman, S.; Betancourt, M.; Steinberg, N.; Weinstein, L. B.; Ashkenazi, A.; Tena-Vidal, J.; Papadopoulou, A.; Chambers-Wall, G.; Smith, J.; Achenbach, P.; Alvarado, J. S.; Amaryan, M. J.; Atac, H.; Baashen, L.; Baltzell, N. A.; Barion, L.; Bashkanov, M.; Battaglieri, M.; Benmokhtar, F.; Bianconi, A.; Biselli, A. S.; Bondi, M.; Bossù, F.; Boiarinov, S.; Brinkmann, K. -Th.; Briscoe, W. J.; Brooks, W. K.; Bueltmann, S.; Burkert, V. D.; Cao, T.; Capobianco, R.; Carman, D. S.; Carvajal, J. C.; Chatagnon, P.; Chesnokov, V.; Chinchay, H.; Ciullo, G.; Cole, P. L.; Contalbrigo, M.; D'Angelo, A.; Dashyan, N.; De Vita, R.; Defurne, M.; Deur, A.; Diehl, S.; Djalali, C.; Dupre, R.; Egiyan, H.; Alaoui, A. El; Fassi, L. El; Elouadrhiri, L.; Farooq, M.; Fegan, S.; Fernando, I. P.; Filippi, A.; Gavalian, G.; Gilfoyle, G. P.; Gothe, R. W.; Guo, L.; Hafidi, K.; Hakobyan, H.; Hattawy, M.; Hauenstein, F.; Hayward, T. B.; Heddle, D.; Hobart, A.; Holtrop, M.; Hung, Yu-Chun; Ilieva, Y.; Ireland, D. G.; Isupov, E. L.; Jiang, H.; Jo, H. S.; Joosten, S.; Khandaker, M.; Kim, A.; Klein, F. J.; Klimenko, V.; Kripko, A.; Kubarovsky, V.; Kuhn, S. E.; Lanza, L.; Lenisa, P.; Marchand, D.; Mascagna, V.; Matamoros, D.; McKinnon, B.; Mineeva, T.; Mirazita, M.; Mokeev, V.; Munoz Camacho, C.; Nadel-Turonski, P.; Nagorna, T.; Neupane, K.; Nguyen, D.; Niccolai, S.; Osipenko, M.; Pappalardo, L. L.; Paremuzyan, R.; Pasyuk, E.; Paul, S. J.; Phelps, W.; Pilleux, N.; Rafael, S. Polcher; Price, J. W.; Prok, Y.; Reed, T.; Richards, J.; Ripani, M.; Ritman, J.; Rusova, A. A.; Schadmand, S.; Schmidt, A.; Schumacher, R. A.; Scott, M. B. C.; Sharabian, Y. G.; Shirokov, E. V.; Shrestha, S.; Sparveris, N.; Spreafico, M.; Stepanyan, S.; Stakovsky, I.; Strauch, S.; Tan, J. A.; Tenorio, M.; Trotta, N.; Tyson, R.; Ungaro, M.; Upton, D. W.; Vallarino, S.; Venturelli, L.; Vittorini, T.; Voskanyan, H.; Voutier, E.; Wang, Y.; Watts, D. P.; Weerasinghe, U.; Wei, X.; Wood, M. H.; Xu, L.; and Zachariou, N., "Proton Transparency and Neutrino Physics: New Methods and Modeling" (2026). Physics Faculty Publications. 1049.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/physics_fac_pubs/1049