Demonstration of new MeV-scale capabilities in large neutrino LArTPCs using ambient radiogenic and cosmogenic activity in MicroBooNE

Large neutrino liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) experiments can broaden their physics reach by reconstructing and interpreting MeV-scale energy depositions, or blips, present in their data. We demonstrate new calorimetric and particle discrimination capabilities at the MeV energy scale using reconstructed blips in data from the MicroBooNE LArTPC at Fermilab. We observe a concentration of low-energy (<a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mo>&lt;</a:mo><a:mn>3</a:mn><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mi>MeV</a:mi></a:math>) blips around fiberglass mechanical support struts along the time projection chamber edges with energy spectrum features consistent with the Compton edge of 2.614 MeV <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mrow><c:mmultiscripts><c:mrow><c:mi>Tl</c:mi></c:mrow><c:mprescripts/><c:none/><c:mrow><c:mn>208</c:mn></c:mrow></c:mmultiscripts></c:mrow></c:math> decay <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><e:mi>γ</e:mi></e:math> rays. These features are used to verify proper calibration of electron energy scales in MicroBooNE’s data to few percent precision and to measure the specific activity of <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><g:mrow><g:mmultiscripts><g:mrow><g:mi>Tl</g:mi></g:mrow><g:mprescripts/><g:none/><g:mrow><g:mn>208</g:mn></g:mrow></g:mmultiscripts></g:mrow></g:math> in the fiberglass composing these struts, <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><i:mo stretchy="false">(</i:mo><i:mn>11.7</i:mn><i:mo>±</i:mo><i:mn>0.2</i:mn><i:mrow><i:mo stretchy="false">(</i:mo><i:mi>stat</i:mi><i:mo stretchy="false">)</i:mo></i:mrow><i:mo>±</i:mo><i:mn>3.1</i:mn><i:mrow><i:mo stretchy="false">(</i:mo><i:mi>syst</i:mi><i:mo stretchy="false">)</i:mo></i:mrow><i:mo stretchy="false">)</i:mo><i:mtext> </i:mtext><i:mtext> </i:mtext><i:mi>Bq</i:mi><i:mo>/</i:mo><i:mi>kg</i:mi></i:math>. Cosmogenically produced blips above 3 MeV in reconstructed energy are used to showcase the ability of large LArTPCs to distinguish between low-energy proton and electron energy depositions. An enriched sample of low-energy protons selected using this new particle discrimination technique is found to be smaller in data than in dedicated cosmic-ray simulations, suggesting either incorrect modeling of incident cosmic fluxes or particle transport modeling issues in eant4.

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Journal
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Published
2025-02-10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.111.032005
Citations
8
Primary Topic
Neutrino Physics Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
14.96

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article

Demonstration of new MeV-scale capabilities in large neutrino LArTPCs using ambient radiogenic and cosmogenic activity in MicroBooNE

P. Englezos, J. Barrow, N. Pallat, E. Piasetzky et al.
8 citations
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Neutrino Physics Research
14.96
article

Demonstration of new MeV-scale capabilities in large neutrino LArTPCs using ambient radiogenic and cosmogenic activity in MicroBooNE

P. Englezos, J. Barrow, N. Pallat, E. Piasetzky, O. Alterkait, W. C. Louis, K. Pletcher, G. A. Horton-Smith, C. Thorpe, M. Bhattacharya, A. P. Furmanski, M. H. Shaevitz, J. Spitz, M. Kirby, A. Mastbaum, A. Bhat, J. Shi, T. Kobilarcik, M. Wospakrik, Yun-Tse Tsai, M. Bishai, J. L. Raaf, L. Hagaman, B. Eberly, D. Torbunov, S. R. Dennis, D. Barrow, J. J. Evans, S. Balasubramanian, J.-Y. Li, A. Chappell, C. James, M. Convery, J.E. Bateman, I. Pophale, F. Cavanna, A. M. Szelc, N. Nayak, J. M. Conrad, T. Mohayai, S. R. Dennis, Ryan Cross, N. Taniuchi, S. Mulleriababu, D. Caratelli, V. Paolone, L. Cooper-Troendle, D. Marsden, V. Meddage, R. Diurba, Z. Djurcic, Hairong Wei, Z. Imani, G. P. Zeller, X. Luo, F. Gao, J. I. Crespo-Anadón, M. Del Tutto, N. Patel, G. Cerati, L. Rochester, T. Strauss, K. Wresilo, M. Reggiani-Guzzo, D. Kalra, A. F. Moor, D. Totani, C. D. Moore, A. Blake, H. B. Parkinson, T. Bolton, Alexander Trettin, D. Franco, T. Wongjirad, L. Arellano, I. Safa, G. Ge, K. Terao, W. Ketchum, E. L. Snider, S. Gardiner, S. Gollapinni, Y. Li, Tariq Mahmud, O. Palamara, V. Papavassiliou, W. Seligman, L. M. Gu, L. Mora Lepin, M. Söderberg, K. Miller, John E. Tyler, O. Hen, N. Oza, S. F. Pate, L. Ren, P. Guzowski, G. Karagiorgi, S. Berkman, A. Rafique, C. Hilgenberg, Z. Pavlovic, E. Yandel, B. T. Fleming, B. Baller, M. Stancari, O. Benevides Rodrigues, D. Naples, B. Irwin, H. W. Yu, J. Nowak, R. Guenette, A. Navrer-Agasson, I. Mawby, C. Mariani, Chaogang Fang, G. Barr, A. Schukraft, M. Mooney, E. Gramellini, J. Micallef, A. J. White, W. Gu, B. Bogart, T. Usher, C. Nguyen, J. Wang, K. Lin, D. Garcia-Gamez, L. E. Yates, Y. Chen, A. Ereditato, L. Camilleri, A. Bhanderi, R. Sharankova, M. Nebot-Guinot, L. Mellet, J. Zennamo, C. Zhang, S. Martynenko, M. A. Uchida, S. Wolbers, P. Abratenko, A. Ashkenazi, J. St. John, K. Duffy, A. Papadopoulou, J. H. Jo, V. Radeka, M. M. Moudgalya, Rob Johnson, X. Qian, B. R. Littlejohn, P. Green, T. Yang, W. Foreman, S. Söldner‐Rembold, M. Ross-Lonergan, S. Dytman, M. Rosenberg, B. Viren, M. Toups, W. Wu, M. B. Brunetti, Y. Cao, D. W. Schmitz, J. Rodriguez Rondon, M. Weber, N. Lorenzo Martinez, N. McConkey, J. Asaadi, V. Basque, X. Ji, D. A. Martínez Caicedo, J. Marshall, Y.-J. Jwa, D. Andrade Aldana, M. S. Ismail, A. Barnard, N. Lane, Jesus Eduardo Munoz Mendez, A. Mogan, H. Greenlee, M. D. Handley, Haibo Liu
article en
8 citations

Abstract

Large neutrino liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) experiments can broaden their physics reach by reconstructing and interpreting MeV-scale energy depositions, or blips, present in their data. We demonstrate new calorimetric and particle discrimination capabilities at the MeV energy scale using reconstructed blips in data from the MicroBooNE LArTPC at Fermilab. We observe a concentration of low-energy (<a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mo>&lt;</a:mo><a:mn>3</a:mn><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mtext> </a:mtext><a:mi>MeV</a:mi></a:math>) blips around fiberglass mechanical support struts along the time projection chamber edges with energy spectrum features consistent with the Compton edge of 2.614 MeV <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mrow><c:mmultiscripts><c:mrow><c:mi>Tl</c:mi></c:mrow><c:mprescripts/><c:none/><c:mrow><c:mn>208</c:mn></c:mrow></c:mmultiscripts></c:mrow></c:math> decay <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><e:mi>γ</e:mi></e:math> rays. These features are used to verify proper calibration of electron energy scales in MicroBooNE’s data to few percent precision and to measure the specific activity of <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><g:mrow><g:mmultiscripts><g:mrow><g:mi>Tl</g:mi></g:mrow><g:mprescripts/><g:none/><g:mrow><g:mn>208</g:mn></g:mrow></g:mmultiscripts></g:mrow></g:math> in the fiberglass composing these struts, <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><i:mo stretchy="false">(</i:mo><i:mn>11.7</i:mn><i:mo>±</i:mo><i:mn>0.2</i:mn><i:mrow><i:mo stretchy="false">(</i:mo><i:mi>stat</i:mi><i:mo stretchy="false">)</i:mo></i:mrow><i:mo>±</i:mo><i:mn>3.1</i:mn><i:mrow><i:mo stretchy="false">(</i:mo><i:mi>syst</i:mi><i:mo stretchy="false">)</i:mo></i:mrow><i:mo stretchy="false">)</i:mo><i:mtext> </i:mtext><i:mtext> </i:mtext><i:mi>Bq</i:mi><i:mo>/</i:mo><i:mi>kg</i:mi></i:math>. Cosmogenically produced blips above 3 MeV in reconstructed energy are used to showcase the ability of large LArTPCs to distinguish between low-energy proton and electron energy depositions. An enriched sample of low-energy protons selected using this new particle discrimination technique is found to be smaller in data than in dedicated cosmic-ray simulations, suggesting either incorrect modeling of incident cosmic fluxes or particle transport modeling issues in eant4.

Physical review. D/Physical review. D.Vol. 111(3)
New Mexico State University (US), University of Bern (CH), Louisiana State University (US), Tufts University (US), Argonne National Laboratory (US), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US), Los Alamos National Laboratory (US), Tel Aviv University (IL), Queen Mary University of London (GB), University of Pittsburgh (US), Universidad de Granada (ES), Illinois Institute of Technology (US), South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (US), Kansas State University (US), Brookhaven National Laboratory (US), Nankai University (CN), University of Cambridge (GB), University of Michigan (US), University of Minnesota System (US), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US), University of California System (US), University of Manchester (GB), University of Warwick (GB), University of Oxford (GB), University of Chicago (US), Rutgers Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (NL), Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (ES), Imperial College London (GB), Indiana University (US), University of Cincinnati (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), Lancaster University (GB), Syracuse University (US), University of Southern Maine (US), Columbia University (US), Michigan State University (US), Colorado State University (US), University of Edinburgh (GB)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, UK Research and Innovation, Royal Society, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Office of Science, Science and Technology Facilities Council, High Energy Physics, Nuclear Physics, Fermilab
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Neutrino Physics Research
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