Conventional neutrino scattering measurements provide insight into neutrino interactions, nucleon structure, and the Standard Model. However, to address the open questions in this field, neutrino experiments require very intense, well understood beams and fine-grained detectors in order to minimize statistical and systematic errors.
Past experiments from the bubble chamber era ('70s-'80s) measured neutrino interactions with precision detection techniques. However these experiments were limited by low statistics and large flux uncertainties. In the '80s and '90s, neutrino scattering measurements moved to higher energies to probe nucleon structure and get higher statistics. In the past decade, as neutrino oscillation measurements pushed beam energies lower, into regions of interest in oscillation space, neutrino scattering physics again has moved into the low energy regime. With a new generation of intense, well understood, low energy neutrino beams interest in neutrino scattering physics has re-kindled. Combining these new neutrino sources with new fine grained detection techniques, we are poised to address the many open questions in this low energy regime.
Described here is the promise of LArTPCs for neutrino scattering measurements as we enter the era of precision neutrino physics. Specifically, Ξ½-p elastic scattering and single pion production are described. Ideas for very massive LArTPCs for long-baseline neutrino oscillation physics are also under study [1,2], but are not discussed here.