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Improving Neutrino Oscillation Measurements through Event Classification

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-04-14 v2 Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

Precise neutrino energy reconstruction is essential for next-generation long-baseline oscillation experiments, yet current methods remain limited by large uncertainties in neutrino-nucleus interaction modeling. Even so, it is well established that different interaction channels produce systematically varying amounts of missing energy and therefore yield different reconstruction performance--information that standard calorimetric approaches do not exploit. We introduce a strategy that incorporates this structure by classifying events according to their underlying interaction type prior to energy reconstruction. Using supervised machine-learning techniques trained on labeled generator events, we leverage intrinsic kinematic differences among quasi-elastic scattering, meson-exchange current, resonance production, and deep-inelastic scattering processes. A cross-generator testing framework demonstrates that this classification approach is robust to microphysics mismodeling and, when applied to a simulated DUNE νμ\nu_\mu disappearance analysis, yields improved accuracy and sensitivity at the 10-20% level. These results highlight a practical path toward reducing reconstruction-driven systematics in future oscillation measurements.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.11938,
  title  = {Improving Neutrino Oscillation Measurements through Event Classification},
  author = {Sebastian A. R. Ellis and Daniel C. Hackett and Shirley Weishi Li and Pedro A. N. Machado and Karla Tame-Narvaez},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.11938},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

12 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:38:33.390Z