Study Of The 1 Track 0 Pion Charged Current Antineutrino Interaction Cross-Section

Neutrinos are neutrally charged leptons which interact predominantly through the weak nuclear force, making them difficult to study. They have been observed to undergo a process known as oscillation, which causes their leptonic flavor to change. NOνA (NuMI Off-Axis ν e Appearance) is an experiment that seeks to study these oscilla- tions by narrowing down some of the parameters that govern them. This is done using a neutrino beam source known as the NuMI (Neutrinos at the Main Injector) beam and two detectors, a near detector to measure the beam before any significant oscillation can occur, and a far detector to measure the beam after it has traveled enough for oscillations to be noticeable. The NOνA analysis is heavily dependent on simulated data in order to develop the tech- niques we use to identify and measure neutrino events in the detector. This simulated data is formed through the use of various models which determine the characteristics of the simulated data, and the frequency of certain events. These models try to approximate physical events to the best of our abilities, but as long as there is uncertainty in the real life measurements used to tune our models we can never be certain they are accurate. Reducing that uncertainty however means we can better trust the tools and methods developed using the simulated data when mak- ing the measurements of the oscillation parameters. This study seeks to improve the model that handles the neutrino cross section, which de- termines the likelihood of a neutrino interacting, and which form the interaction will take. In NOνA, a software package called GENIE is used to simulate any variety of neutrino interaction, regardless of flavor or energy. The inclusive cross-section used for all neutrino interactions can be broken down mathematically into a sum of cross-sections for events with different observable characteristics. These exclusive cross-section measurements can be used to tune the interaction vmodels we use in the simulations for the oscillation analysis. This thesis describes a technique to measure the antineutrino charged current zero pion exclusive cross-section for the NOνA experi- ment.