Determine whether the topology-transfer fraction is energy dependent

Determine whether the proton-visibility migration fraction in GENIE-based neutrino–argon analyses has a moderate energy dependence rather than being adequately represented by a single flat, energy-independent transfer fraction.

Background

The analysis models migration from the proton-tagged (Np) topology to the proton-less (0p) topology with a single fraction, although the underlying probability should depend on proton kinetic energy, nuclear density, and nucleon–nucleon scattering dynamics. The available MicroBooNE sideband has limited effective rank and coarse binning, so the authors perform only a two-bin energy split as a preliminary check.

The two-bin fit yields values consistent with the flat-model result but with substantially larger uncertainties. Consequently, the data support the presence of a topology-transfer direction but do not establish whether its magnitude varies with neutrino energy. Resolving this issue requires higher-statistics data and finer binning, such as future SBND measurements.