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Assessing the accuracy of the GENIE event generator with electron scattering data: Reduced cross section and nuclear transparency

A. V. Butkevich and S. V. Luchuk

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 093005 – Published 19 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jrnx-r49l

Abstract

The reduced cross sections of the semiexclusive (l,l′p) lepton scattering process can be identified with distorted spectral functions. Irrespective of the type of interaction, the distorted spectral function is determined mainly by intrinsic properties of the target and the ejected nucleon interaction with residual nucleus. Thus, the reduced cross sections of the neutrino and electron scattering on nuclei as functions of nucleon missing momentum and energy are similar up to Coulomb corrections. Here, we demonstrate the utility of this approach by benchmarking the GENIE neutrino event generator against a broad set of semiexclusive electron scattering data for carbon target. We observe persistent disagreements between the generator predictions and data in the range of nucleon missing momenta less than 80  MeV/c. The approach presented in this paper provides a great opportunity to test better the accuracy of nuclear models of quasielastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, employed in neutrino event generators.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 093005– Published 19 November, 2025
  • Received 1 July 2025
  • Accepted 20 October 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International 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.

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