Accelerator Neutrinos

Abstract:

We present the first measurement of the single-differential νe + ¯νe charged-current inclusive cross sections on argon in electron or positron energy and in electron or positron scattering angle over the full range. Data were collected using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber located off-axis from the Fermilab Neutrinos at the Main Injector beam over an exposure of 2.0 × 1020 protons on target. The signal definition includes a 60 MeV threshold on the νe or ¯νe energy and a 120 MeV threshold on the electron or positron energy. The measured total and differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the GENIE, NuWro, and GiBUU neutrino generators.

Abstract:

Abstract The energy response of the ATLAS calorimeter is measured for single charged pions with transverse momentum in the range $$10<p_\text {T}<300$$ 10 < p T < 300 GeV. The measurement is performed using 139 $$\text {fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 of LHC proton–proton collision data at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13 TeV taken in Run 2 by the ATLAS detector. Charged pions originating from $$\tau $$ τ -lepton decays are used to provide a sample of high- $$p_{\text {T}}$$ p T isolated particles, where the composition is known, to test an energy regime that has not previously been probed by in situ single-particle measurements. The calorimeter response to single-pions is observed to be overestimated by $${\sim }2\%$$ ∼ 2 % across a large part of the $$p_{\text {T}}$$ p T spectrum in the central region and underestimated by $${\sim }4\%$$ ∼ 4 % in the endcaps in the ATLAS simulation. The uncertainties in the measurements are $${\lesssim }1\%$$ ≲ 1 % for $$15<p_\text {T}<185$$ 15 < p T < 185 GeV in the central region. To investigate the source of the discrepancies, the width of the distribution of the ratio of calorimeter energy to track momentum, the energies per layer and response in the hadronic calorimeter are also compared between data and simulation.

Abstract:

We report results from a search for neutrino-induced neutral current (NC) resonant Δ(1232) baryon production followed by Δ radiative decay, with a ⟨0.8⟩  GeV neutrino beam. Data corresponding to MicroBooNE’s first three years of operations (6.80×1020 protons on target) are used to select single-photon events with one or zero protons and without charged leptons in the final state (1γ1p and 1γ0p, respectively). The background is constrained via an in situ high-purity measurement of NC π0 events, made possible via dedicated 2γ1p and 2γ0p selections. A total of 16 and 153 events are observed for the 1γ1p and 1γ0p selections, respectively, compared to a constrained background prediction of 20.5±3.65(syst) and 145.1±13.8(syst) events. The data lead to a bound on an anomalous enhancement of the normalization of NC Δ radiative decay of less than 2.3 times the predicted nominal rate for this process at the 90% confidence level (C.L.). The measurement disfavors a candidate photon interpretation of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess as a factor of 3.18 times the nominal NC Δ radiative decay rate at the 94.8% C.L., in favor of the nominal prediction, and represents a greater than 50-fold improvement over the world’s best limit on single-photon production in NC interactions in the sub-GeV neutrino energy range.