Search for an anomalous excess of charged-current electron neutrino interactions with the MicroBooNE detector
Date
2022
Authors
Caro Terrazas, Ivan, author
Mooney, Michael R., advisor
Wilson, Robert J., committee member
Buchanan, Norm, committee member
Kirby, Michael, committee member
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Abstract
MicroBooNE is a liquid argon time projection chamber detector designed to address the excess of low-energy electromagnetic events observed by the MiniBooNE detector. Electron neutrinos can create a wide variety of topologies when interacting with liquid argon; this analysis measures events without pions, both with (1eNp0π) and without (1e0p0π) visible protons. This thesis presents a first measurement of pionless charged-current electron neutrino interactions from the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab in the MicroBooNE detector. A model based on the MiniBooNE result is used to quantify the strength of the electron neutrino excess. The analysis suggests that if an excess is present, it is not consistent with a simple scaling of the electronneutrino contribution to the flux. Combined, the 1eNp0π and 1e0p0π channels do not give a conclusive indication of the tested model, but separately they both disfavor the low-energy excess model at > 90% CL. The observation in the most sensitive 1eNp0π channel is below the prediction and is consistent with no excess. In the less sensitive 1e0p0π channel the observation at low energy is above the prediction, while overall there is agreement over the full energy spectrum.
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Subject
low-energy excess
neutrino
MicroBooNE
LArTPC