Neutrino reactions on the deuteron - art. no. 034617

The cross sections for the nu -d and <(<nu>)over bar>-d reactions are calcu lated for incident energy up to E-nu=170 MeV with the use of a phenomenolog ical Lagrangian approach. We assess and improve the reliability of the empl oyed calculational method by examining the dependence of the results on var ious input and approximations that go into the calculation. The main points of improvement over the existing work are (1) use of the "modern" NN poten tials, (2) use of the more accurate nucleon weak-interaction form factors, and (3) monitoring the strength of a vertex that governs the exchange-curre nt contribution, with the use of data on the related process, n+p -->d+gamm a. In addition to the total cross sections, we present various differential cross sections that are expected to be useful for the SNO and other experi ments. In the low-energy regime relevant to the solar neutrinos, the newly calculated total cross sections essentially agree with the existing literat ure values. The origins of slight differences found for higher energies are discussed. The ratio between the neutral-current and charged-current react ion cross sections is found to be extremely stable against any variations i n the input of our calculation.