Abstract
The experimental searches for diffuse supernova neutrino background and proton decay in next-generation large liquid-scintillator (LS) detectors are competitive with and complementary to those in the water-Cherenkov detectors. In this paper, we carry out a systematic study of the dominant background induced by atmospheric neutrinos via their neutral-current (NC) interactions with the $^{12}{\rm C}$ nuclei in the LS detectors. The atmospheric neutrino fluxes at the location of Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) are used, as the JUNO detector is obviously a suitable representative for future LS detectors. Then, we implement the sophisticated generators \texttt{GENIE} and \texttt{NuWro} to simulate the neutrino interactions with the carbon nuclei, and the package \texttt{TALYS} to deal with the deexcitations of final-state nuclei. Finally, the event rates for the production of additional nucleons, $\gamma$'s, $\alpha$'s, pions and kaons are obtained and categorized, and the systematic uncertainty of the NC background represented by a variety of data-driven nuclear models is estimated. The implications of the NC background from atmospheric neutrinos for the detection of diffuse supernova neutrino background and proton decay are also discussed.
Highlights
Recent years have seen very impressive progress in neutrino oscillation experiments, which have revealed the fundamental properties of neutrino masses and leptonic flavor mixing, and provided us with more powerful detectors for neutrino astronomy and the experimental searches for other rare events
We proceed to carry out a detailed analysis of the NC backgrounds for the detection of diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) and proton decay
(3) In Fig. 8, neutron multiplicity distributions of the NC interactions of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei have been categorized by the multiplicities of the charged pions in the coherent and diffractive production (COH), resonance production (RES), and deep inelastic scattering (DIS) processes
Summary
Recent years have seen very impressive progress in neutrino oscillation experiments, which have revealed the fundamental properties of neutrino masses and leptonic flavor mixing, and provided us with more powerful detectors for neutrino astronomy and the experimental searches for other rare events. Among various physics goals of future large-scale neutrino detectors, the discoveries of the long-sought diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB) as well as proton decay feature among the most important. Motivated by the prominent importance of the experimental searches for DSNB and proton decay, in the present work we perform a systematic study of the NC background induced by atmospheric neutrinos. For this purpose, several ingredients are required. First comes the precise calculation of the fluxes of atmospheric neutrinos, which originate from the interactions of high-energy cosmic rays with the nuclei in the Earth’s atmosphere [34], and depend on the specific detector site under consideration.
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