Emission of neutron-proton and proton-proton pairs in neutrino scattering

We use a recently developed model of relativistic meson-exchange currents to compute the neutron-proton and proton-proton yields in (νμ,μ−) scattering from 12C in the 2p-2h channel. We compute the response functions and cross sections with the relativistic Fermi gas model for different kinematics from intermediate to high momentum transfers. We find a large contribution of neutron-proton configurations in the initial state, as compared to proton-proton pairs. In the case of charge-changing neutrino scattering the 2p-2h cross section of proton-proton emission (i.e., np in the initial state) is much larger than for neutron-proton emission (i.e., two neutrons in the initial state) by a (ω,q)-dependent factor. The different emission probabilities of distinct species of nucleon pairs are produced in our model only by meson-exchange currents, mainly by the Δ isobar current. We also analyze other effects including exchange contributions and the effect of the axial and vector currents.