Effects of strong final-state interactions in the superscaling properties of neutral-current quasielastic neutrino cross sections are investigated by using the relativistic impulse approximation as guidance. First- and second-kind scaling are analyzed for neutrino beam energies ranging from 1 to 2 GeV for the cases of ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$, ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$, and ${}^{40}\mathrm{Ca}$. Different detection angles of the outgoing nucleon are considered to sample various nucleon energy regimes. Scaling of the second kind is shown to be very robust. The validity of first-kind scaling is found to be linked to the kinematics of the process. Superscaling still prevails even in the presence of very strong final-state interactions, provided that some kinematical restrains are kept, and the conditions under which superscaling can be applied to predict neutral-current quasielastic neutrino scattering are determined.

• Received 27 March 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.77.064604