Measurement of the double-differential muon-neutrino charged-current inclusive cross section in the NOvA near detector

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We report cross-section measurements of the final-state muon kinematics for ν_μ charged-current interactions in the NOvA near detector using an accumulated 8.09×10²⁰ protons on target in the NuMI beam. We present the results as a double-differential cross section in the observed outgoing muon energy and angle, as well as single-differential cross sections in the derived neutrino energy, E_ν, and square of the four-momentum transfer, Q². We compare the results to inclusive cross-section predictions from various neutrino event generators via χ² calculations using a covariance matrix that accounts for bin-to-bin correlations of systematic uncertainties. These comparisons show a clear discrepancy between the data and each of the tested predictions at forward muon angle and low Q², indicating a missing suppression of the cross section in current neutrino-nucleus scattering models.