Session R11: Neutrino Detector I

Calibrating Momentum Measurements Of The CMS Detector Using Cosmic Ray Muons

We report results on the muon momentum calibration using cosmic-ray data taken by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment during run 2 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The momentum scale of high-pT muons is sensitive to a possible bias on the curvature coming from the alignment of the muon system. Cosmic rays are a source of high-pT muons that can be used to measure the momentum scale of muons with pT $>$ 200 GeV. The present talk describes the method used to measure the momentum scale from cosmic data and the measurement using the 2016 cosmic data is presented.   

Attenuation Calibration in the NOvA Detectors

NOvA is a long baseline neutrino experiment which is constructed from long extruded PVC cells filled with liquid scintillator. When charged particles move through the scintillator, they produce scintillation light. A loop of wavelength shifting optical fibre in each cell transports the scintillation light to the electronic readout. Light is attenuated as it passes through this fibre - this must be calibrated for using cosmic muons. However, cosmic muons do not deposit equal amounts of energy throughout the detector due to threshold effects, detector self-shielding, and variation in individual fibres’ transmittance of light. In this talk, we discuss corrections for all three of these effects, and their impact on the accuracy of reconstructed energy.   

An Overview of CC Coherent Pion Production

Neutrino cross-sections are a critical component to any neutrino measurement. With the modern neutrino experiments aiming to measure precision parameters, such as those in long-baseline oscillation experiments, the need for a detailed understanding of neutrino interactions has become even more important. Within this landscape remains a number of experimental challenges in the regime of low energy neutrino cross-sections. This talk will give an overview of recent publications on Charged Current-Coherent Pion Production (CC-Coh Pion) results from a number of experimental collaborations. Specifically, the lack of observation from the SciBooNE and T2K collaborations to observe ~CC-Coh Pion below one GeV in contrast to the observation of this signature at higher energies by other experiments. The work presented here is a part of the beginning steps to a reanalysis of the SciBooNE data using a modern neutrino generator in order to better understand the previous results. There will be included details of a liquid Argon purification system that is being built at UTA, and of plans for a ``Baby Time Projection Chamber (TPC)'' which will also be built at UTA, and the instrumentation and detector methods used in their construction. The closing is a look to the future for a new analysis at low neutrino energies utilizing Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPCs) based at Fermilab.   

Simulation and Reconstruction for the OLIVIA Experiment

OLIVIA is an experiment that will provide a sensitive test of the weak interaction. The idea is to analyze Li-8 beta decay, followed by the double-alpha decay of the Be-8 daughter, using a gas-based Time Projection Chamber (TPC). Specifically, precision kinematic measurements of the 2 MeV alphas allow us to probe the V-A nature of the weak interaction. Alphas emitted in the TPC produce trails of ionization, which are drifted down through the detector to an amplification plane. The amplified track signals are then photographed and read out in time to provide a three-dimensional picture of the Li-8 decay event. Along with presenting the status and outlook for the OLIVIA project, I will discuss my work on simulating and reconstructing double-alpha waveforms from the TPC's amplification plane. This work is essential for achieving excellent alpha energy resolution, which will ultimately set OLIVIA's sensitivity to new physics.   

Status of the Inclusive $\nu_{\mu}$ CC Cross Section Measurement in the NOvA Near Detector

NOvA is a long-baseline (810 km) neutrino oscillation experiment. It uses the NuMI neutrino beam from Fermilab and two mostly active, segmented, liquid scintillator off-axis detectors that offer a remarkable capability in event identification. One of the main purposes of the 293 ton Near Detector at Fermilab is to measure the unoscillated neutrino energy spectrum, which can be used to predict the neutrino energy spectrum at the 14 kton Far Detector at Ash River, MN. In addition to that, it also provides an excellent opportunity to measure cross sections with high statistics. Improved understanding of neutrino-nucleus interactions will benefit current and future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. In this talk we present the status of the measurement of the inclusive $\nu_{\mu}$ charge current cross section in the NOvA Near Detector.   

Scintillation Light Background Discrimination in the SBND Experiment

SBND is a liquid argon detector being constructed along the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beamline. As a part of the Short Baseline Neutrino Program, it will attempt to resolve the MiniBooNE low energy excess hinting at possible oscillations into sterile neutrinos. SBND will install a light detection system with a much higher expected light yield than previous argon neutrino experiments. This will enable scintillation light to play a key role in measuring the properties of neutrinos, and improve the sensitivity to interesting low energy physics such as supernova neutrinos or nucleon decay. A challenge for low energy measurements in large liquid argon detectors is the contribution from $^{39}$Ar, which being present in atmospheric argon, provides a steady source of scintillation light. I will present studies to develop methods of reducing the impact of $^{39}$Ar backgrounds while maintaining sensitivity to low energy physics signals.   

Statistical techniques for DeepCore

IceCube, with its low energy extension DeepCore, is an ice Cherenkov neutrino detector located at the south pole. It is used, among other physics, to measure the fundamental properties of neutrinos. This talk will review some of the statistical methods and techniques we are using to deal with the challenges we are faced with in the atmospheric neutrino oscillation analyses.   

Study of Track Ambiguities and Wire Plane Orientation in Single Phase Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is currently in development and will utilize a ten-kiloton scale liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) to observe neutrinos from a beam produced using protons from the Main Injector at Fermilab. It is difficult to accurately reconstruct tracks traveling nearly parallel to the LArTPC wire planes due to the finite time resolution of the detector and the limitations of using projective wire geometries. Such reconstructed tracks exhibit degeneracy to varying degrees and could have a large enough effect on primary signals and backgrounds to warrant a design change in the DUNE TPCs. We simulated charged current signal and neutral pion decay background events in order to understand the impact on signal efficiency and background rejection in a LArTPC using wire readout planes situated parallel or perpendicular to the neutrino beam. We found that using a perpendicular wire plane significantly reduces the degeneracy problem for both lepton and hadrons. Other aspects of perpendicular TPC design including signal processing are still under study.   

Firmware algorithms for PINGU experiment

PINGU is a future low energy extension for the IceCube experiment. It will be implemented as several additional closer positioned stings of digital optical modules (DOMs) inside the main detector volume. PINGU would be able to register neutrinos with energies as low as few GeV. One of the proposed designs for the new PINGU DOMs is an updated version of IceCube DOMs with newer electronic components, particularly a better more modern FPGA. With those improvements it is desirable to run some waveform feature extraction directly on the DOM, thus decreasing amount of data sent over the detector’s bandwidth-limited cable. In order to use the existing feature extraction package for this purpose the signal waveform needs to be prepared by subtracting of a variable baseline from it. The baseline shape is dependant mostly on the environment temperature, which causes the long term drift of the signal, and the induction used in signal readout electronics, which modifies the signal shape. Algorithms have been selected to counter those baseline variances, modeled and partly implemented in FPGA fabric. The simulation shows good agreement between initial signal and the “corrected” version.