Dr Patrick Green

Abstract:

We present the measurement of ${\pi }^{+}$ -argon inelastic cross sections using the ProtoDUNE single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber in the incident ${\pi }^{+}$ kinetic energy range of 500–800 MeV in multiple exclusive channels (absorption, charge exchange, and the remaining inelastic interactions). The results of this analysis are important inputs to simulations of liquid argon neutrino experiments such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and the Short Baseline Neutrino program at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. They will be employed to improve the modeling of final state interactions within neutrino event generators used by these experiments, as well as the modeling of ${\pi }^{+}$ -argon secondary interactions within the liquid argon. This is the first measurement of ${\pi }^{+}$ -argon absorption at this kinetic energy range as well as the first ever measurement of ${\pi }^{+}$ -argon charge exchange.

Abstract:

We present an inclusive search for anomalous production of single-photon events from neutrino interactions in the MicroBooNE experiment. The search and its signal definition are motivated by the previous observation of a low-energy excess of electromagnetic shower events from the MiniBooNE experiment. We use the Wire-Cell reconstruction framework to select a sample of inclusive single-photon final-state interactions with a final efficiency and purity of 7.0% and 40.2%, respectively. We leverage simultaneous measurements of sidebands of charged current ${\nu }_{\mu }$ interactions and neutral current interactions producing ${\pi }^0$ mesons to constrain signal and background predictions and reduce uncertainties. We perform a blind analysis using a dataset collected from February 2016 to July 2018, corresponding to an exposure of $6.34\times {10}^{20}$ protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab. In the full signal region, we observe agreement between the data and the prediction, with a goodness-of-fit $p$ value of 0.11. We then isolate a subsample of these events containing no visible protons, and observe $93\pm 22(\mathrm{stat})\pm 35(\mathrm{syst})$ data events above prediction, corresponding to just above $2\sigma$ local significance, concentrated at shower energies below 600 MeV.

Abstract:

The short-baseline near detector (SBND), the near detector in the short-baseline neutrino program at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, is located just 110 m from the booster neutrino beam target. Thanks to this close proximity, relative to its $4\mathrm{m}\times 4\mathrm{m}$ front face, neutrinos enter SBND over a range of angles from 0° to approximately 1.6°, enabling the detector to sample variations in the neutrino flux as a function of the angle—a technique known as precision reaction-independent spectrum measurement (PRISM), referred to here as SBND-PRISM. In this paper, we show how muon- and electron-neutrino fluxes vary as a function of the neutrino beam axis angle and how this can be exploited to expand the physics potential of SBND. We make use of a model that predicts an angle-dependent electron-neutrino excess signal to illustrate this effect, such as ${\nu }_{\mu }\to {\nu }_e$ oscillations. We present how SBND-PRISM provides a method to add robustness against uncertainties in cross-section modeling and, more generally, uncertainties that do not depend on the spatial position of neutrino interaction inside the detector. The fluxes, along with their associated covariance matrices, are made publicly available with this publication.

Abstract:

We present the strongest experimental limits to date on the mixing angle, $\theta$ , with which a new scalar particle, $S$ , mixes with the Higgs field in the mass range $110\mathrm{MeV}<m_S<155\mathrm{MeV}$ . This result uses the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber to search for decays of these Higgs-portal scalar particles through the $S\to e^{+}{e}^{-}$ channel with the decays of kaons in the NuMI neutrino beam acting as the source of the scalar particles. The analysis uses an exposure of $2.01\times {10}^{21}$ protons on target of NuMI beam data including periods when the beam focusing system was configured to focus positively charged hadrons and separate periods when negatively charged hadrons were focused. The analysis searches for scalar particles produced from kaons decaying in flight in the beam’s decay volume and at rest in the target and absorber. At $m_S=125\mathrm{MeV}$ ( $m_S=150\mathrm{MeV}$ ) we set a limit of $\theta <3.19\times {10}^{-4}$ ( $\theta <2.79\times {10}^{-4}$ ) at the 95% confidence level.