Neutrino reactions on the deuteron

The cross sections for the \nu-d and \bar{\nu}-d reactions are calculated forthe incident energy up to E_\nu = 170 MeV, with the use of a phenomenologicalLagrangian approach. We assess and improve the reliability of the employedcalculational method by examining the dependence of the results on variousinput and approximations that go into the calculation. The main points ofimprovements over the existing work are: (1) use of the "modern" NN potentials;(2) use of the more accurate nucleon weak-interaction form factors; (3)monitoring the strength of a vertex that governs the exchange-currentcontribution, with the use of data on the related process, n+p\to d+\gamma. Inaddition to the total cross sections, we present various differential crosssections that are expected to be useful for the SNO and other experiments. Inthe low energy regime relevant to the solar neutrinos, the newly calculatedtotal cross sections agree with the existing literature values. The origins ofslight differences found for higher energies are discussed. The ratio betweenthe neutral-current and charged-current reaction cross sections is found to beextremely stable against any variations in the input of our calculation.Comment: 46 pages, REVTeX, 21 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.