Noise Characterization and Filtering in the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon TPC

The low-noise operation of readout electronics in a liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) is critical to properly extract the distribution of ionization charge deposited on the wire planes of the TPC, especially for the induction planes. This paper describes the characteristics and mitigation of the observed noise in the MicroBooNE detector. The MicroBooNE's single-phase LArTPC comprises two induction planes and one collection sense wire plane with a total of 8256 wires. Current induced on each TPC wire is amplified and shaped by custom low-power, low-noise ASICs immersed in the liquid argon. The digitization of the signal waveform occurs outside the cryostat. Using data from the first year of MicroBooNE operations, several excess noise sources in the TPC were identified and mitigated. The residual equivalent noise charge (ENC) after noise filtering varies with wire length and is found to be below 400 electrons for the longest wires (4.7 m). The response is consistent with the cold electronics design expectations and is found to be stable with time and uniform over the functioning channels. This noise level is significantly lower than previous experiments utilizing warm front-end electronics.Comment: 36 pages, 20 figure

QCD Sum Rule Analysis of Heavy Quarkonium Hybrids

We have studied the charmonium and bottomonium hybrid states with various $J^{PC}$ quantum numbers in QCD sum rules. At leading order in $\alpha_s$, the two-point correlation functions have been calculated up to dimension six including the tri-gluon condensate and four-quark condensate. After performing the QCD sum rule analysis, we have confirmed that the dimension six condensates can stabilize the hybrid sum rules and allow the reliable mass predictions. We have updated the mass spectra of the charmonium and bottomonium hybrid states and identified that the negative-parity states with $J^{PC}=(0, 1, 2)^{-+}, 1^{--}$ form the lightest hybrid supermultiplet while the positive-parity states with $J^{PC}=(0, 1)^{+-}, (0, 1, 2)^{++}$ belong to a heavier hybrid supermultiplet.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figures. Some minor edits have been made. Presentation at the DPF 2013 Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields, Santa Cruz, California, August 13-17, 201

Masses of Open-Flavour Heavy-Light Hybrids from QCD Sum-Rules

We use QCD Laplace sum-rules to predict masses of open-flavour heavy-light hybrids where one of the hybrid's constituent quarks is a charm or bottom and the other is an up, down, or strange. We compute leading-order, diagonal correlation functions of several hybrid interpolating currents, taking into account QCD condensates up to dimension-six, and extract hybrid mass predictions for all $J^P\in\{0^{\pm},\,1^{\pm}\}$, as well as explore possible mixing effects with conventional quark-antiquark mesons. Within theoretical uncertainties, our results are consistent with a degeneracy between the heavy-nonstrange and heavy-strange hybrids in all $J^P$ channels. We find a similar mass hierarchy of $1^+$, $1^{-}$, and $0^+$ states (a $1^{+}$ state lighter than essentially degenerate $1^{-}$ and $0^{+}$ states) in both the charm and bottom sectors, and discuss an interpretation for the $0^-$ states. If conventional meson mixing is present the effect is an increase in the hybrid mass prediction, and we estimate an upper bound on this effect.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. Mass predictions updated from previous version to reflect corrected sign error in sum rule analysis. Mixing analysis and examination of higher weight sum-rules added. To be published in JHE

Exploring the Spectrum of Heavy Quarkonium Hybrids with QCD Sum Rules

QCD Laplace sum rules are used to calculate heavy quarkonium (charmonium and bottomonium) hybrid masses in several distinct $J^{PC}$ channels. Previous studies of heavy quarkonium hybrids did not include the effects of dimension-six condensates, leading to unstable sum rules and unreliable mass predictions in some channels. We have updated these sum rules to include dimension-six condensates, providing new mass predictions for the spectra of heavy quarkonium hybrids. We confirm the finding of other approaches that the negative-parity $J^{PC}=(0,1,2)^{-+},\,1^{--}$ states form the lightest hybrid supermultiplet and the positive-parity $J^{PC}=(0,1)^{+-},\,(0,1,2)^{++}$ states are members of a heavier supermultiplet. Our results disfavor a pure charmonium hybrid interpretation of the $X(3872)$, in agreement with previous work.Comment: Presented by RTK at the Theory Canada 9 Conference, held at Wilfrid Laurier University in June 2014. Submitted for the conference proceedings to be published in the Canadian Journal of Physics. 5 pages, 1 figure. Version 2: reference added, typo correcte

Measurement of cosmic-ray reconstruction efficiencies in the MicroBooNE LArTPC using a small external cosmic-ray counter

The MicroBooNE detector is a liquid argon time projection chamber at Fermilab designed to study short-baseline neutrino oscillations and neutrino-argon interaction cross-section. Due to its location near the surface, a good understanding of cosmic muons as a source of backgrounds is of fundamental importance for the experiment. We present a method of using an external 0.5 m (L) x 0.5 m (W) muon counter stack, installed above the main detector, to determine the cosmic-ray reconstruction efficiency in MicroBooNE. Data are acquired with this external muon counter stack placed in three different positions, corresponding to cosmic rays intersecting different parts of the detector. The data reconstruction efficiency of tracks in the detector is found to be $\epsilon_{\mathrm{data}}=(97.1\pm0.1~(\mathrm{stat}) \pm 1.4~(\mathrm{sys}))\%$, in good agreement with the Monte Carlo reconstruction efficiency $\epsilon_{\mathrm{MC}} = (97.4\pm0.1)\%$. This analysis represents a small-scale demonstration of the method that can be used with future data coming from a recently installed cosmic-ray tagger system, which will be able to tag $\approx80\%$ of the cosmic rays passing through the MicroBooNE detector.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure

The Pandora multi-algorithm approach to automated pattern recognition of cosmic-ray muon and neutrino events in the MicroBooNE detector

The development and operation of Liquid-Argon Time-Projection Chambers for neutrino physics has created a need for new approaches to pattern recognition in order to fully exploit the imaging capabilities offered by this technology. Whereas the human brain can excel at identifying features in the recorded events, it is a significant challenge to develop an automated, algorithmic solution. The Pandora Software Development Kit provides functionality to aid the design and implementation of pattern-recognition algorithms. It promotes the use of a multi-algorithm approach to pattern recognition, in which individual algorithms each address a specific task in a particular topology. Many tens of algorithms then carefully build up a picture of the event and, together, provide a robust automated pattern-recognition solution. This paper describes details of the chain of over one hundred Pandora algorithms and tools used to reconstruct cosmic-ray muon and neutrino events in the MicroBooNE detector. Metrics that assess the current pattern-recognition performance are presented for simulated MicroBooNE events, using a selection of final-state event topologies.Comment: Preprint to be submitted to The European Physical Journal

A Proposal for a Three Detector Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Program in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam

A Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) physics program of three LAr-TPC detectors located along the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermilab is presented. This new SBN Program will deliver a rich and compelling physics opportunity, including the ability to resolve a class of experimental anomalies in neutrino physics and to perform the most sensitive search to date for sterile neutrinos at the eV mass-scale through both appearance and disappearance oscillation channels. Using data sets of 6.6e20 protons on target (P.O.T.) in the LAr1-ND and ICARUS T600 detectors plus 13.2e20 P.O.T. in the MicroBooNE detector, we estimate that a search for muon neutrino to electron neutrino appearance can be performed with ~5 sigma sensitivity for the LSND allowed (99% C.L.) parameter region. In this proposal for the SBN Program, we describe the physics analysis, the conceptual design of the LAr1-ND detector, the design and refurbishment of the T600 detector, the necessary infrastructure required to execute the program, and a possible reconfiguration of the BNB target and horn system to improve its performance for oscillation searches.Comment: 209 pages, 129 figure

Determination of muon momentum in the MicroBooNE LArTPC using an improved model of multiple Coulomb scattering

We discuss a technique for measuring a charged particle's momentum by means of multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS) in the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC). This method does not require the full particle ionization track to be contained inside of the detector volume as other track momentum reconstruction methods do (range-based momentum reconstruction and calorimetric momentum reconstruction). We motivate use of this technique, describe a tuning of the underlying phenomenological formula, quantify its performance on fully contained beam-neutrino-induced muon tracks both in simulation and in data, and quantify its performance on exiting muon tracks in simulation. Using simulation, we have shown that the standard Highland formula should be re-tuned specifically for scattering in liquid argon, which significantly improves the bias and resolution of the momentum measurement. With the tuned formula, we find agreement between data and simulation for contained tracks, with a small bias in the momentum reconstruction and with resolutions that vary as a function of track length, improving from about 10% for the shortest (one meter long) tracks to 5% for longer (several meter) tracks. For simulated exiting muons with at least one meter of track contained, we find a similarly small bias, and a resolution which is less than 15% for muons with momentum below 2 GeV/c. Above 2 GeV/c, results are given as a first estimate of the MCS momentum measurement capabilities of MicroBooNE for high momentum exiting tracks

Ionization Electron Signal Processing in Single Phase LArTPCs I. Algorithm Description and Quantitative Evaluation with MicroBooNE Simulation

We describe the concept and procedure of drifted-charge extraction developed in the MicroBooNE experiment, a single-phase liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC). This technique converts the raw digitized TPC waveform to the number of ionization electrons passing through a wire plane at a given time. A robust recovery of the number of ionization electrons from both induction and collection anode wire planes will augment the 3D reconstruction, and is particularly important for tomographic reconstruction algorithms. A number of building blocks of the overall procedure are described. The performance of the signal processing is quantitatively evaluated by comparing extracted charge with the true charge through a detailed TPC detector simulation taking into account position-dependent induced current inside a single wire region and across multiple wires. Some areas for further improvement of the performance of the charge extraction procedure are also discussed.Comment: 60 pages, 36 figures. The second part of this work can be found at arXiv:1804.0258