Reconstructed Neutrino Energy Research Articles

Flux-integrated semiexclusive cross sections for charged-current quasielastic and neutral-current elastic neutrino scattering off Ar40 and a sterile neutrino oscillation study

Flux-integrated semiexclusive differential cross sections for charged-current quasielastic and neutral-current elastic neutrino scattering on argon are analyzed. The cross sections are calculated using the relativistic distorted-wave impulse approximation with values of the nucleon axial mass ${M}_{A}=1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ and 1.2 GeV. The elastic scattering cross sections are also computed for different strange quark contributions to the neutral-current axial form factor. The flux-integrated differential cross sections as functions of reconstructed neutrino energy are evaluated for the far detector of the SBN experiment. The effects of the short baseline neutrino oscillations are taken into account in a $3+1$ framework. We found that cross sections depend on oscillation parameters and the ratio of the measured and predicted cross sections can be used in a sterile neutrino oscillation study.

Uncertainties in QE and RES Events at LBNF Due to Hadronic Production in FSI

To achieve appropriate interaction rates in recent neutrino oscillation studies, high atomic number nuclear targets were utilized. Because of the nuclear effects in the experimental observable, the utilization of these complicated targets produced systematic uncertainties that needed to be assessed accurately to constrain the discovery. We made an effort to calculate the nuclear effects in the Ar and H targets, which are intended to be employed at the DUNE far and near detectors, respectively, through our simulation effort. The DUNE flux is peaking around 2.5 GeV, and CCRES is the dominant process at this energy. So, this work will be focused only on the CCQE and CCRES interactions and the simulations will be done using two different neutrino event generators. We reported the ratio of the oscillation probability (P(Ar)/P(H) as a function of reconstructed neutrino energy for CCRES channels to quantify the systematic errors in the observables.

Search for an anomalous excess of charged-current quasielastic νe interactions with the MicroBooNE experiment using Deep-Learning-based reconstruction

We present a measurement of the νe-interaction rate in the MicroBooNE detector that addresses the observed MiniBooNE anomalous low-energy excess (LEE). The approach taken isolates neutrino interactions consistent with the kinematics of charged-current quasielastic (CCQE) events. The topology of such signal events has a final state with one electron, one proton, and zero mesons (1e1p). Multiple novel techniques are employed to identify a 1e1p final state, including particle identification that use two methods of Deep-Learning-based image identification and event isolation using a boosted decision-tree ensemble trained to recognize two-body scattering kinematics. This analysis selects 25 νe-candidate events in the reconstructed neutrino energy range of 200–1200 MeV, while 29.0±1.9(sys)±5.4(stat) are predicted when using νμ CCQE interactions as a constraint. We use a simplified model to translate the MiniBooNE LEE observation into a prediction for a νe signal in MicroBooNE. A Δχ2 test statistic, based on the combined Neyman–Pearson χ2 formalism, is used to define frequentist confidence intervals for the LEE signal strength. Using this technique, in the case of no LEE signal, we expect this analysis to exclude a normalization factor of 0.75 (0.98) times the median MiniBooNE LEE signal strength at 90% (2σ) confidence level, while the MicroBooNE data yield an exclusion of 0.25 (0.38) times the median MiniBooNE LEE signal strength at 90% (2σ) confidence level.40 MoreReceived 28 October 2021Accepted 25 March 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.105.112003Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Physical SystemsNeutrinosParticles & Fields

First Measurement of Energy-Dependent Inclusive Muon Neutrino Charged-Current Cross Sections on Argon with the MicroBooNE Detector.

We report a measurement of the energy-dependent total charged-current cross section σ(E_{ν}) for inclusive muon neutrinos scattering on argon, as well as measurements of flux-averaged differential cross sections as a function of muon energy and hadronic energy transfer (ν). Data corresponding to 5.3×10^{19} protons on target of exposure were collected using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber located in the Fermilab booster neutrino beam with a mean neutrino energy of approximately 0.8GeV. The mapping between the true neutrino energy E_{ν} and reconstructed neutrino energy E_{ν}^{rec} and between the energy transfer ν and reconstructed hadronic energy E_{had}^{rec} are validated by comparing the data and MonteCarlo (MC) predictions. In particular, the modeling of the missing hadronic energy and its associated uncertainties are verified by a new method that compares the E_{had}^{rec} distributions between data and a MC prediction after constraining the reconstructed muon kinematic distributions, energy, and polar angle to those of data. The success of this validation gives confidence that the missing energy in the MicroBooNE detector is well modeled and underpins first-time measurements of both the total cross section σ(E_{ν}) and the differential cross section dσ/dν on argon.

Neutrino energy reconstruction from semi-inclusive samples

We study neutrino-nucleus charged-current reactions on finite nuclei for the situation in which an outgoing muon and a proton are detected in coincidence, i.e., we focus on semi-inclusive cross sections. We limit our attention to one-body current interactions (quasielastic scattering) and assess the impact of different nuclear effects in the determination of the neutrino energy. We identify the regions in phase space where the neutrino energy can be reconstructed relatively well, and study whether the cross section in those regions is significant. Our results indicate that it is possible to filter more than 50% of all events according to the muon and proton kinematics, so that for the DUNE and T2K fluxes the neutrino energy can be determined with an uncertainty of less than 1% and 3%, respectively. Furthermore, we find that the reconstructed neutrino energy does not depend strongly on how one treats the final-state interactions and is not much affected by the description of the initial state. On the other hand, the estimations of the uncertainty on the neutrino energy show important sensitivity to the modeling of the initial state.

Uncertainties Due to Hadronic Production in Final-State Interactions at Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility

Recent neutrino oscillation experiments used high atomic number nuclear targets to attain sufficient interaction rates. The use of these complex targets introduced systematic uncertainties due to the nuclear effects in the experimental observables and need to be measured properly to pin down the discovery. Through this simulation work, we are trying to quantify the nuclear effects in the argon (Ar) target in comparison to hydrogen (H) target which are proposed to be used at Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment far detector and near detector, respectively. Generated Events for Neutrino Interaction Experiments and NuWro, two neutrino event generators, are used to construct final state kinematics. To quantify the systematic uncertainties in the observables, we present the ratio of the oscillation probabilities (P(Ar)/P(H)) as a function of the reconstructed neutrino energy.

Neutrino interaction classification with a convolutional neural network in the DUNE far detector

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is a next-generation neutrino oscillation experiment that aims to measure $CP$-violation in the neutrino sector as part of a wider physics program. A deep learning approach based on a convolutional neural network has been developed to provide highly efficient and pure selections of electron neutrino and muon neutrino charged-current interactions. The electron neutrino (antineutrino) selection efficiency peaks at 90% (94%) and exceeds 85% (90%) for reconstructed neutrino energies between 2-5 GeV. The muon neutrino (antineutrino) event selection is found to have a maximum efficiency of 96% (97%) and exceeds 90% (95%) efficiency for reconstructed neutrino energies above 2 GeV. When considering all electron neutrino and antineutrino interactions as signal, a selection purity of 90% is achieved. These event selections are critical to maximize the sensitivity of the experiment to $CP$-violating effects.

Electroweak pion production on nuclei within the extended factorization scheme

We have applied the extended factorization scheme to investigate the electroweak pion production on nuclei. The ANL-Osaka model, which was obtained by analyzing the data of $\pi N$, $\gamma N$, $N(e,e'\pi)$ and $N(\nu,\mu\,\pi) $ reactions up to invariant mass $W=$ 2 GeV, is used to generate the matrix elements of current operators relevant to pion-production off the nucleon. Medium effects on the $\Delta$ (1232) component of meson-exchange current are included by using a $\Delta$-nucleus potential determined from the previous $\Delta$-hole model studies of pion-nucleus reactions. Nuclear correlations in the initial target state and in the spectator system(s) are modeled using realistic hole spectral functions. As a first step, we show that the data of $^{12}$C$(e,e')$ up to the $\Delta$ (1232) region can be described reasonably well. The interplay between the pion production and two-body meson-exchange mechanisms is shown to be essential in improving the agreement with the data in the ``dip'' region, between the quasielastic and the $\Delta$ (1232) peaks. Predictions for $^{12}$C$(\nu,\mu\,\pi)$ have also been made. They can be used to estimate pion-emission rates in neutrino-nucleus cross section, which constitutes an important systematic uncertainty to the reconstructed neutrino energy. With further improvements of the Metropolis Monte-Carlo techniques to account for final states comprised of more than two particles, our approach can be employed up to $W=$ 2 GeV, where two-pion production and higher mass nucleon resonances must be included for analyzing the data from accelerator-based neutrino-oscillation experiments.

Understanding the energy resolution of liquid argon neutrino detectors

Available estimates for the energy resolution of DUNE vary by as much as a factor of four. To address this controversy, and to connect the resolution to the underlying physical processes, we build an independent simulation pipeline for neutrino events in liquid argon, combining the public tools GENIE and FLUKA. Using this pipeline, we first characterize the channels of non-hermeticity of DUNE, including subthreshold particles, charge recombination, and nuclear breakup. Particular attention is paid to the role of neutrons, which are responsible for a large fraction of missing energy in all channels. Next, we determine energy resolution, by quantifying event-to-event stochastic fluctuations in missing energy. This is done for several sets of assumptions about the reconstruction performance, including those available in the literature. The resulting migration matrices, connecting true and reconstructed neutrino energies, are presented. Finally, we quantify the impact of different improvements on the experimental performance. For example, we show that dropping particle identification information degrades the resolution by a factor of two, while omitting charge deposits from de-excitation gammas worsens it by about 25%. In the future, this framework can be used to assess the impact of cross section uncertainties on the oscillation sensitivity.

Mean-field approach to reconstructed neutrino energy distributions in accelerator-based experiments

The reconstruction of the neutrino energy is crucial in oscillation experiments that use interactions with nuclei to detect the neutrino. The common reconstruction procedure is based on the kinematics of the final-state lepton. The interpretation of the reconstructed energy in terms of the real neutrino energy must rely on a model for the neutrino-nucleus interaction. The Relativistic Fermi Gas (RFG) model is frequently used in these analyses. In the Hartree-Fock (HF) model for quasielastic nucleon knockout, the bound nucleon wave functions are obtained using an effective nucleon-nucleon force. The final-state wave function is constructed from continuum states in the same potential which have the correct asymptotic behavior. The Continuum Random Phase Approximation (CRPA) model extends the HF approach taking long range correlations into account in a self-consistent way. Considering only single-nucleon processes, the distributions of reconstructed neutrino energies obtained within the HF-CRPA approach are compared with the results of the RFG, an RPWIA calculation, and the RPA+np-nh model of Martini et al. We find that the distributions of reconstructed energies for a fixed incoming energy in the HF-CRPA display additional strength in the low reconstructed energy tails compared to models without elastic distortion of the outgoing nucleon. This asymmetry redistributes strength from higher to lower values of the reconstructed energy. The mean field description of the nuclear dynamics results in a reshaping of the reconstructed energy distribution that cannot be accounted for in a plane wave impulse approximation model, even by modifying ad hoc parameters such as the binding energy. In particular it is shown that in the RFG calculations there is no value of the binding energy which is able to reproduce the entire T2K $\nu_\mu$ oscillated spectrum as calculated in HF-CRPA.

A multi-component model for observed astrophysical neutrinos

Aims. We investigated the origin of observed astrophysical neutrinos. Methods. We propose a multi-component model for the observed diffuse neutrino flux. The model includes residual atmospheric backgrounds, a Galactic contribution (e.g., from cosmic ray interactions with gas), an extragalactic contribution from pp interactions (e.g., from starburst galaxies), and a hard extragalactic contribution from photo-hadronic interactions at the highest energies (e.g., from tidal disruption events or active galactic nuclei). Results. We demonstrate that this model can address the key problems of astrophysical neutrino data, such as the different observed spectral indices in the high-energy starting and through-going muon samples, a possible anisotropy due to Galactic events, the non-observation of point sources, and the constraint from the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background. Furthermore, the recently observed muon track with a reconstructed muon energy of 4.5 PeV might be interpreted as evidence for the extragalactic photo-hadronic contribution. We perform the analysis based on the observed events instead of the unfolded fluxes by computing the probability distributions for the event type and reconstructed neutrino energy. As a consequence, we give the probability of each of these astrophysical components on an event-to-event basis.

Neutrino Interactions in the few-GeV region and the MiniBooNE anomaly

The MiniBooNE experiment reported results from the analysis of νe and appearance searches, which showed an excess of signal-like events at low reconstructed neutrino energies with respect to the expected background. The origin of this anomaly could reside in poorly understood neutrino interactions in the detector, leading to unaccounted backgrounds. We discuss photon emission in neutral current interactions with nucleons and nuclei, finding it insufficient to explain the observed event excess. A proposed alternative scenario in which photons arise from the radiative decay of heavy (∼ 50 MeV) sterile neutrinos produced by νµ electromagnetic and weak interactions in the detector is also considered. We have calculated the expected signal at MicroBooNE. The distinctive shape and total number of photon events from this mechanism makes its experimental investigation appealing.

An Algorithm for the Reconstruction of Neutrino-induced Showers in the ANTARES Neutrino Telescope

Abstract Muons created by charged current (CC) interactions in the water surrounding the ANTARES neutrino telescope have been almost exclusively used so far in searches for cosmic neutrino sources. Due to their long range, highly energetic muons inducing Cherenkov radiation in the water are reconstructed with dedicated algorithms that allow for the determination of the parent neutrino direction with a median angular resolution of about 0.°4 for an neutrino spectrum. In this paper, an algorithm optimized for accurate reconstruction of energy and direction of shower events in the ANTARES detector is presented. Hadronic showers of electrically charged particles are produced by the disintegration of the nucleus both in CC and neutral current interactions of neutrinos in water. In addition, electromagnetic showers result from the CC interactions of electron neutrinos while the decay of a tau lepton produced in CC interactions will, in most cases, lead to either a hadronic or an electromagnetic shower. A shower can be approximated as a point source of photons. With the presented method, the shower position is reconstructed with a precision of about 1 m; the neutrino direction is reconstructed with a median angular resolution between 2° and 3° in the energy range of 1–1000 TeV. In this energy interval, the uncertainty on the reconstructed neutrino energy is about 5%–10%. The increase in the detector sensitivity due to the use of additional information from shower events in the searches for a cosmic neutrino flux is also presented.

Precision measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters @ INO-ICAL detector

Atmospheric neutrino experiments have the potential to measure the neutrino mixing parameters and mass hierarchy through the observation of earth matter effects. The magnetised Iron CALorimeter detector (ICAL) at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is one of the best experiments to separate the νμ and ν‾μ with its excellent charge identification capabilities. We show the oscillation sensitivity of ICAL detector for the precision measurement of atmospheric mixing parameters |Δm322| and sin2⁡θ23. The Monte Carlo simulation for NUANCE generated atmospheric νμ and ν‾μ events and a marginalised χ2 analysis using realistic detector resolutions and efficiencies has been performed. We show the expected improvement in the precision measurement of these parameters using reconstructed neutrino energy (Eν) and muon direction (cos⁡θμ) observables.

Precision measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters at INO-ICAL detector

A magnetized Iron CALorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based neutrino observatory (INO) is used to study neutrino oscillation sensitivity using atmospheric muon neutrino source. The ICAL detector will be able to detect muon tracks and hadron showers produced by neutrino interactions with the iron target. We have performed precision measurement analysis for the atmospheric neutrino oscillation parameters with the muon neutrino events, generated by Monte Carlo NUANCE event generator. A marginalized χ2 analysis based on reconstructed neutrino energy and muon zenith angle binning scheme has been performed to determine the sensitivity for the atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters, \(\sin ^{2}\theta _{23}\) and \(| {\Delta } m^{2}_{23}|\).

Missing energy and the measurement of theCP-violating phase in neutrino oscillations

In the next generation of long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments aiming to determine the charge-parity-violating phase ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{CP}$ in the appearance channel, fine-grained time-projection chambers are expected to play an important role. In this paper, we analyze an influence of realistic detector capabilities on the ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{CP}$ sensitivity for a setup similar to that of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. We find that the effect of the missing energy carried out by undetected particles is sizable. Although the reconstructed neutrino energy can be corrected for the missing energy, the accuracy of such procedure has to exceed 20%, to avoid a sizable bias in the extracted ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{CP}$ value.

The sensitivity of the ICAL detector at India-based Neutrino Observatory to neutrino oscillation parameters

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) will host a 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector that will be able to detect muon tracks and hadron showers produced by Charged-Current muon neutrino interactions in the detector. The ICAL experiment will be able to determine the precision of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters and neutrino mass hierarchy using atmospheric muon neutrinos through earth matter effect. In this paper, we report on the sensitivity for the atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters ($\sin^{2}\theta_{23}$ and $|\Delta m^{2}_{32}|$) for the ICAL detector using the reconstructed neutrino energy and muon direction as observables. We apply realistic resolutions and efficiencies obtained by the ICAL collaboration with a GEANT4-based simulation to reconstruct neutrino energy and muon direction. Our study shows that using neutrino energy and muon direction as observables for a $\chi^{2}$ analysis, ICAL detector can measure $\sin^{2}\theta_{23}$ and $|\Delta m^{2}_{32}|$ with 13% and 4% uncertainties at 1$\sigma$ confidence level for 10 years of exposure.

Single photon events from neutral current interactions at MiniBooNE

The MiniBooNE experiment has reported results from the analysis of νe and ν¯e appearance searches, which show an excess of signal-like events at low reconstructed neutrino energies, with respect to the expected background. A significant component of this background comes from photon emission induced by (anti)neutrino neutral current interactions with nucleons and nuclei. With an improved microscopic model for these reactions, we predict the number and distributions of photon events at the MiniBooNE detector. Our results are compared to the MiniBooNE in situ estimate and to other theoretical approaches. We find that, according to our model, neutral current photon emission from single-nucleon currents is insufficient to explain the events excess observed by MiniBooNE in both neutrino and antineutrino modes.

Measuring the mass hierarchy with muon and hadron events in atmospheric neutrino experiments

Neutrino mass hierarchy can be measured in atmospheric neutrino experiments through the observation of earth matter effects. Magnetized iron calorimeters have been shown to be good in this regard due to their charge identification capabilities. The charged current interaction of $\nu_\mu$ in this detector, produces a muon track and a hadron shower. The direction of the muon track can be measured very accurately. We show the improvement expected in the reach of this class of experiments to the neutrino mass hierarchy, as we improve the muon energy resolution and the muon reconstruction efficiency. We next propose to include the hadron events in the analysis, by tagging them with the zenith angle of the corresponding muon and binning the hadron data first in energy and then in zenith angle. To the best of our knowledge this way of performing the analysis of the atmospheric neutrino data has not be considered before. We show that the hadron events increase the mass hierarchy sensitivity of the experiment. Finally, we show the expected mass hierarchy sensitivity in terms of the reconstructed neutrino energy and zenith angle. We show how the detector resolutions spoil the earth matter effects in the neutrino channel and argue why the sensitivity obtained from the neutrino analysis cannot be significantly better than that obtained from the analysis using muon data alone. As a result, the best mass hierarchy sensitivity is obtained when we add the contribution of the muon and the hadron data. For $\sin^22\theta_{13}=0.1$, $\sin^2\theta_{23}=0.5$, a muon energy resolution of 2\%, reconstruction efficiency of 80\% and exposure of $50\times 10$ kton-year, we could get up to $4.5\sigma$ signal for the mass hierarchy from combining the muon and hadron data.

Energy reconstruction effects in neutrino oscillation experiments and implications for the analysis

Data on neutrino oscillation often involve reconstructed neutrino energies while the analysis implies the real neutrino energy. The corrections corresponding to the transformation from real to reconstructed energy are discussed in the case of Cherenkov detectors where multinucleon events appear as quasielastic ones. These corrections show up as a tendency for the events to escape the region of high flux, with a clear preference for the low energy side. This is an effect of the multinucleon component of the quasielastic cross section. We have applied our corrections to the T2K and MiniBooNE data for electron appearance or $\nu_\mu$ disappearance data. We show that the inclusion of this correction in the analysis is expected to lead to an increase of the best fit oscillation mass parameters, particularly pronounced for the MiniBooNE neutrino data. This inclusion in the analysis of the MiniBooNE neutrino data should improve the compatibility with the existing constraints.