Using neutrinos produced at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the COHERENT collaboration has studied the $\mathrm{Pb}({\mathrm{<ruby><rb>\nu </rb><rt>にゅー</rt></ruby>}}_e,\mathrm{X}n)$ process with a lead neutrino-induced-neutron (NIN) detector. Data from this detector are fit jointly with previously collected COHERENT data on this process. A combined analysis of the two datasets yields a cross section that is ${0.29}_{-0.16}^{+0.17}$ times that predicted by the MARLEY event generator using experimentally-measured Gamow-Teller strength distributions, consistent with no NIN events at $1.8\mathrm{<ruby><rb>\sigma </rb><rt>しぐま</rt></ruby>}$. This is the first inelastic neutrino-nucleus process COHERENT has studied, among several planned exploiting the high flux of low-energy neutrinos produced at the SNS.

• Received 29 December 2022
• Revised 13 April 2023
• Accepted 1 September 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.072001

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Published by the American Physical Society