Measurement of the single π⁰ production rate in neutral current neutrino interactions on water

The single pi(0) production rate in neutral current neutrino interactions on water in a neutrino beam with a peak neutrino energy of 0.6 GeV has been measured using the empty set, one of the subdetectors of the T2K near detector. The production rate was measured for data taking periods when the Pempty setD contained water (2.64 x 10(20) protons-on-target) and also periods without water (3.49 x 10(20) protons-on-target). A measurement of the neutral current single pi(0) production rate on water is made using appropriate subtraction of the production rate with water in from the rate with water out of the target region. The subtraction analysis yields 106 +/- 41 +/- 69 signal events where the uncertainties are statistical (stat.) and systematic (sys.) respectively. This is consistent with the prediction of 157 events from the nominal simulation. The measured to expected ratio is 0.68 +/- 0.26(stat) +/- 0.44(sys) +/- 0.12(flux). The nominal simulation uses a flux integrated cross section of 7.63 x 10(-39) cm(2) per nucleon with an average neutrino interaction energy of 1.3 GeV.