Improving Neutrino Oscillation Measurements through Event Classification
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 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