Rejecting cosmic background for exclusive charged current quasi elastic neutrino interaction studies with Liquid Argon TPCs; a case study with the MicroBooNE detector

• Published in: The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields Vol. 79; no. 8; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Alrashed, M., Anthony, J., Asaadi, J., Balasubramanian, S., Baller, B., Barnes, C., Bass, M., Bay, F., Bhattacharya, K., Bishai, M., Bolton, T., Camilleri, L., Terrazas, I. Caro, Carr, R., Fernandez, R. Castillo, Cerati, G., Chen, Y., Conrad, J. M., Convery, M., Cooper-Troendle, L., Devitt, A., Diaz, A., Dytman, S., Sanchez, L. Escudero, Esquivel, J., Evans, J. J, Fadeeva, A. A., Fitzpatrick, R. S., Fleming, B. T., Franco, D., Genty, V., Goeldi, D., Gollapinni, S., Goodwin, O., Gramellini, E., Greenlee, H., Hackenburg, A., Hamilton, P., Hourlier, A., Huang, E.-C., Jiang, L., Joshi, J., Jostlein, H., Jwa, Y.-J., Karagiorgi, G., Ketchum, W., Kirby, B., Kirby, M., Kobilarcik, T., Li, Y., Lockwitz, S., Lorca, D., Louis, W. C., Luethi, M., Lundberg, B., Luo, X., Marchionni, A., Marcocci, S., Mariani, C., Caicedo, D. A. Martinez, Mastbaum, A., Meddage, V., Mogan, A., Murrells, R., Naples, D., Nienaber, P., Nowak, J., Pandey, V., Papadopoulou, A., Papavassiliou, V., Pate, S. F., Pavlovic, Z., Ross-Lonergan, M., von Rohr, C. Rudolf, Russell, B., Scanavini, G., Schmitz, D. W., Schukraft, A., Seligman, W., Shaevitz, M. H., Sinclair, J., Smith, A., Snider, E. L., Söldner-Rembold, S., Spitz, J., John, J. St, Strauss, T., Sword-Fehlberg, S., Szelc, A. M., Tagg, N., Tang, W., Thomson, M., Tufanli, S., Viren, B., Wei, H., Wickremasinghe, D. A., Wierman, K., Williams, Z., Zeller, G. P., Zhang, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Argon; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Background radiation; Case studies; Cosmic rays; Criteria; Detectors; Elementary Particles; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Neutrinos; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Physics; NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS; Physics; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Purity; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Regular Article - Experimental Physics; Sensors; String Theory; Surface detectors
• ISSN: 1434-6044; 1434-6052
• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-019-7184-7

Cosmic ray (CR) interactions can be a challenging source of background for neutrino oscillation and cross-section measurements in surface detectors. We present methods for CR rejection in measurements of charged-current quasielastic-like (CCQE-like) neutrino interactions, with a muon and a proton in the final state, measured using liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs). Using a sample of cosmic data collected with the MicroBooNE detector, mixed with simulated neutrino scattering events, a set of event selection criteria is developed that produces an event sample with minimal contribution from CR background. Depending on the selection criteria used a purity between 50 and 80% can be achieved with a signal selection efficiency between 50 and 25%, with higher purity coming at the expense of lower efficiency. While using a specific dataset and selection criteria values optimized for the MicroBooNE detector, the concepts presented here are generic and can be adapted for various studies of exclusive ν μ CCQE interactions in LArTPCs.