Scaling ideas in neutrino scattering reactions: Application to the MiniBooNE experiment.

An exhaustive analysis of the world data on electron scattering has shown that scaling and superscaling properties are fulfilled with great accuracy. The relativistic impulse approximation (RIA) yields a satisfactory description of experimental data. Not only scaling and superscaling behavior emerge, but also the specific asymmetric shape of the experimental scaling function is reproduced. In this work two relativistic approaches are considered to evaluate the neutrino-nucleus cross sections. One, based on the relativistic impulse approximation, relies on the microscopic description of nuclear dynamics using relativistic mean field theory, and incorporates a description of final state interactions. The second is based on the superscaling behavior exhibited by electron scttering data and its applicability, due to the universal character of the scaling function, to the analysis of neutrino scattering reactions. The role played by the vector meson-exchange currents in the two-particle two-hole sector is also incorporated and the results obtained are compared with the recent data for neutrinos measured by the MiniBooNE Collaboration.