MicroBooNE is a neutrino experiment located in the Booster Neutrino Beamline (BNB) at Fermilab, which collected data from 2015 to 2021. MicroBooNE’s liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) is ...accompanied by a photon detection system consisting of 32 photomultiplier tubes used to measure the argon scintillation light and determine the timing of neutrino interactions. Analysis techniques combining light signals and reconstructed tracks are applied to achieve a neutrino interaction time resolution of $\mathscr{O}$(1 ns) The result obtained allows MicroBooNE to access the nanosecond beam structure of the BNB for the first time. The timing resolution achieved will enable significant enhancement of cosmic background rejection for all neutrino analyses. Furthermore, the ns timing resolution opens new avenues to search for long-lived-particles such as heavy neutral leptons in MicroBooNE, as well as in future large LArTPC experiments, namely the SBN program and DUNE.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
We report on a flux-integrated multi-differential measurement of charged-current muon neutrino scattering on argon with one muon and one proton in the final state using the Booster Neutrino Beam and ...MicroBooNE detector at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The data are studied as a function of various kinematic imbalance variables and of a neutrino energy estimator, and are compared to a number of event generator predictions. We find that the measured cross sections in different phase-space regions are sensitive to nuclear effects. Our results provide precision data to test and improve the neutrino-nucleus interaction models needed to perform high-accuracy oscillation analyses. Specific regions of phase-space are identified where further model refinements are most needed.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
For a large liquid-argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC) operating on or near the Earth’s surface to detect neutrino interactions, the rejection of cosmogenic background is a critical and ...challenging task because of the large cosmic-ray flux and the long drift time of the time-projection chamber. We introduce a superior cosmic background rejection procedure based on the Wire-Cell three-dimensional (3D) event reconstruction for LArTPCs. From an initial 1:20 000 neutrino to cosmic-ray background ratio, we demonstrate these tools on data from the MicroBooNE experiment and create a high-performance generic neutrino event selection with a cosmic contamination of 14.9% (9.7%) for a visible energy region greater than O(200) MeV. The neutrino interaction selection efficiency is 80.4% and 87.6% for inclusive νμ charged-current and νe charged-current interactions, respectively. Here, this significantly improved performance compared with existing reconstruction algorithms marks a major milestone toward reaching the scientific goals of LArTPC neutrino oscillation experiments operating near the Earth’s surface.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
We present an analysis of MicroBooNE data with a signature of one muon, no pions, and at least one proton above a momentum threshold of 300 MeV/c (CC0πNp). This is the first differential ...cross-section measurement of this topology in neutrino-argon interactions. We achieve a significantly lower proton momentum threshold than previous carbon and scintillator-based experiments. Using data collected from a total of approximately 1.6×1020 protons on target, we measure the muon neutrino cross section for the CC0πNp interaction channel in argon at MicroBooNE in the Booster Neutrino Beam which has a mean energy of around 800 MeV. We present the results from a data sample with estimated efficiency of 29% and purity of 76% as differential cross sections in five reconstructed variables: the muon momentum and polar angle, the leading proton momentum and polar angle, and the muon-proton opening angle. We include smearing matrices that can be used to “forward fold” theoretical predictions for comparison with these data. We compare the measured differential cross sections to a number of recent theory predictions demonstrating largely good agreement with this first-ever dataset on argon.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
PDF