Comparison between electron– and neutrino–nucleus scattering data suggests that the so-called axial mass anomaly — i.e., the large disagreement between the value of the nucleon axial mass extracted from the analysis of neutrino interactions with carbon and oxygen and that obtained from deuteron data — is a manifestation of the difficulties in the interpretation of the flux averaged neutrino cross-sections. In this short review, I discuss the role of reaction mechanisms leading to the excitation of two particle–two hole final states of the target nucleus, which are believed to be responsible for the observed excess of quasielastic events, and argue that taking into account their effect may help to reconcile the sizeably different values of the axial mass reported by the MiniBooNe and NOMAD Collaborations.
