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Nucleon axial form factor from elementary target data

A. S. Meyer ^1,*, T. Cai^2,3, M. Moore^3,†, S. Akhter⁴, Z. Ahmad Dar^5,4, M. Sajjad Athar⁴, M. Betancourt⁶, H. Budd³, G. Caceres^7,‡ et al. (MINERvA Collaboration)

G. Caceres^7,‡, D. S. Correia⁷, G. A. Díaz^6,3, J. Felix⁸, A. M. Gago⁹, H. Gallagher¹⁰, P. K. Gaur⁴, S. M. Gilligan¹¹, R. Gran¹², E. Granados⁸, D. A. Harris^2,6, A. L. Hart¹³, R. J. Hill^14,6, J. Kleykamp^3,§, A. Klustová¹⁵, M. Kordosky⁵, D. Last^3,16, A. Lozano^7,∥, S. Manly³, W. A. Mann¹⁰, K. S. McFarland³, O. Moreno^5,8, J. K. Nelson⁵, A. Olivier^17,3,¶, V. Paolone¹⁸, G. N. Perdue^6,3, C. Pernas⁵, M. A. Ramírez^16,8, R. D. Ransome¹⁹, D. Ruterbories³, H. Schellman¹¹, C. J. Solano Salinas²⁰, N. H. Vaughan¹¹, M. O. Wascko^21,15, and L. Zazueta^5,** (MINERvA Collaboration)

¹Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550, USA
²York University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3 Canada
³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627 USA
⁴Department of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh 202002, India
⁵Department of Physics, William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187, USA
⁶Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
⁷Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, Rua Dr. Xavier Sigaud 150, Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 22290-180, Brazil
⁸Campus León y Campus Guanajuato, Universidad de Guanajuato, Lascurain de Retana No. 5, Colonia Centro, Guanajuato 36000, Guanajuato México
⁹Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Apartado 1761, Lima, Perú
¹⁰Physics Department, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA
¹¹Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA
¹²Department of Physics, University of Minnesota–Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA
¹³G O Jones Building, Queen Mary University of London, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
¹⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA
¹⁵The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BW, United Kingdom
¹⁶Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
¹⁷Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA
¹⁸Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
¹⁹Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
²⁰Facultad de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, CP 15081, Lima, Perú
²¹Oxford University, Department of Physics, Oxford, OX1 3PJ United Kingdom

^*Contact author: meyer54@llnl.gov
^†Now at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University Department of Physics, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
^‡Now at Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA.
^§Now at Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississipppi 38677.
^∥Now at Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
^¶Now at Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA.
^**Now at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 052008 – Published 8 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ptwr-t73j

Abstract

Precise neutrino-nucleon amplitudes are essential ingredients for predicting neutrino event rates in current and upcoming long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. A common neutrino interaction with a low reaction threshold and with most of the energy carried by two final state particles is quasielastic scattering, for which the nucleon axial form factor, $F_{A} (Q^{2})$ , is a dominant source of uncertainty. Improvements to the nucleon axial form factor rely on neutrino scattering data with elementary targets to reduce or eliminate the need for nuclear modeling systematics. This work examines constraints on the nucleon axial form factor that can be achieved from datasets of neutrino scattering on deuterium targets, Lattice QCD predictions, and from the recent hydrogen target data from the MINERvA Collaboration. Significant tension is found between hydrogen and deuterium target data, suggesting that extractions from deuterium underestimate both the central value and uncertainty of the form factor. Parametrizations for and uncertainties of the nucleon axial form factor using the $z$ expansion are provided.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 052008– Published 8 September, 2026

Vol. 114, Iss. 5 — 1 September 2026

Received 10 February 2026
Accepted 6 August 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ptwr-t73j

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.

Published by the American Physical Society

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Nucleon axial form factor from elementary target data

Abstract

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Deuterium target data for precision neutrino-nucleus cross sections

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