Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector

We present a measurement of the combined $\nu_e$ + $\bar{\nu}_e$ flux-averaged charged-current inclusive cross section on argon using data from the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) at Fermilab. Using the off-axis flux from the NuMI beam, MicroBooNE has reconstructed 214 c...

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Main Authors: Conrad, Janet, Hen, Or
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society (APS) 2022
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142001
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author Conrad, Janet
Hen, Or
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Conrad, Janet
Hen, Or
author_sort Conrad, Janet
collection MIT
description We present a measurement of the combined $\nu_e$ + $\bar{\nu}_e$ flux-averaged charged-current inclusive cross section on argon using data from the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) at Fermilab. Using the off-axis flux from the NuMI beam, MicroBooNE has reconstructed 214 candidate $\nu_e$ + $\bar{\nu}_e$ interactions with an estimated exposure of 2.4$\times10^{20}$ protons on target. Given the estimated purity of 38.6\%, this implies the observation of 80 $\nu_e$ + $\bar{\nu}_e$ events in argon, the largest such sample to date. The analysis includes the first demonstration of a fully automated application of a dE/dx-based particle discrimination technique of electron and photon induced showers in a LArTPC neutrino detector. We measure the $\nu_e + \bar{\nu}_e$ flux-averaged charged-current total cross section to be ${6.84\pm\!1.51~\textrm{(stat.)}\pm\!2.33~\textrm{(sys.)}\!\times\!10^{-39}~\textrm{cm}^{2}/~\textrm{nucleon}}$, for neutrino energies above 250 MeV and an average neutrino flux energy of 905 MeV when this threshold is applied. The measurement is sensitive to neutrino events where the final state electron momentum is above 48 MeV/c, includes the entire angular phase space of the electron, and is in agreement with the theoretical predictions from \texttt{GENIE} and \texttt{NuWro}. This measurement is also the first demonstration of electron neutrino reconstruction in a surface LArTPC in the presence of cosmic ray backgrounds, which will be a crucial task for surface experiments like those that comprise the Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program at Fermilab.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1420012023-06-21T18:42:44Z Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector Conrad, Janet Hen, Or Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics We present a measurement of the combined $\nu_e$ + $\bar{\nu}_e$ flux-averaged charged-current inclusive cross section on argon using data from the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) at Fermilab. Using the off-axis flux from the NuMI beam, MicroBooNE has reconstructed 214 candidate $\nu_e$ + $\bar{\nu}_e$ interactions with an estimated exposure of 2.4$\times10^{20}$ protons on target. Given the estimated purity of 38.6\%, this implies the observation of 80 $\nu_e$ + $\bar{\nu}_e$ events in argon, the largest such sample to date. The analysis includes the first demonstration of a fully automated application of a dE/dx-based particle discrimination technique of electron and photon induced showers in a LArTPC neutrino detector. We measure the $\nu_e + \bar{\nu}_e$ flux-averaged charged-current total cross section to be ${6.84\pm\!1.51~\textrm{(stat.)}\pm\!2.33~\textrm{(sys.)}\!\times\!10^{-39}~\textrm{cm}^{2}/~\textrm{nucleon}}$, for neutrino energies above 250 MeV and an average neutrino flux energy of 905 MeV when this threshold is applied. The measurement is sensitive to neutrino events where the final state electron momentum is above 48 MeV/c, includes the entire angular phase space of the electron, and is in agreement with the theoretical predictions from \texttt{GENIE} and \texttt{NuWro}. This measurement is also the first demonstration of electron neutrino reconstruction in a surface LArTPC in the presence of cosmic ray backgrounds, which will be a crucial task for surface experiments like those that comprise the Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Program at Fermilab. 2022-04-21T13:31:48Z 2022-04-21T13:31:48Z 2021 2022-04-21T12:53:51Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142001 Conrad, Janet and Hen, Or. 2021. "Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector." Physical Review D, 104 (5). en 10.1103/PHYSREVD.104.052002 Physical Review D Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf American Physical Society (APS) APS
spellingShingle Conrad, Janet
Hen, Or
Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector
title Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector
title_full Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector
title_fullStr Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector
title_full_unstemmed Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector
title_short Measurement of the flux-averaged inclusive charged-current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the NuMI beam and the MicroBooNE detector
title_sort measurement of the flux averaged inclusive charged current electron neutrino and antineutrino cross section on argon using the numi beam and the microboone detector
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/142001
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