First measurement of quasi-elastic Λ\Lambda baryon production in muon anti-neutrino interactions in the MicroBooNE detector

We present the first measurement of the cross section of Cabibbo-suppressed $\Lambda$ baryon production, using data collected with the MicroBooNE detector when exposed to the neutrinos from the Main Injector beam at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The data analyzed correspond to $2.2 \times 10^{20}$ protons on target of neutrino mode running and $4.9 \times 10^{20}$ protons on target of anti-neutrino mode running. An automated selection is combined with hand scanning, with the former identifying five candidate $\Lambda$ production events when the signal was unblinded, consistent with the GENIE prediction of $5.3 \pm 1.1$ events. Several scanners were employed, selecting between three and five events, compared with a prediction from a blinded Monte Carlo simulation study of $3.7 \pm 1.0$ events. Restricting the phase space to only include $\Lambda$ baryons that decay above MicroBooNE's detection thresholds, we obtain a flux averaged cross section of $2.0^{+2.2}_{-1.7} \times 10^{-40}$ cm$^2/$Ar, where statistical and systematic uncertainties are combined

First demonstration of O(1 ns)\mathcal{O}(1\,\text{ns}) timing resolution in the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber

MicroBooNE is a neutrino experiment located in the Booster Neutrino Beamline (BNB) at Fermilab, which collected data from 2015 to 2021. MicroBooNE's liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) is accompanied by a photon detection system consisting of 32 photomultiplier tubes used to measure the argon scintillation light and determine the timing of neutrino interactions. Analysis techniques combining light signals and reconstructed tracks are applied to achieve a neutrino interaction time resolution of $\mathcal{O}(1\,\text{ns})$. The result obtained allows MicroBooNE to access the ns neutrino pulse structure of the BNB for the first time. The timing resolution achieved will enable significant enhancement of cosmic background rejection for all neutrino analyses. Furthermore, the ns timing resolution opens new avenues to search for long-lived-particles such as heavy neutral leptons in MicroBooNE, as well as in future large LArTPC experiments, namely the SBN program and DUNE

First Measurement of Differential Cross Sections for Muon Neutrino Charged Current Interactions on Argon with a Two-proton Final State in the MicroBooNE Detector

We present the first measurement of differential cross sections for charged-current muon neutrino interactions on argon with one muon, two protons, and no pions in the final state. Such interactions leave the target nucleus in a two-particle two-hole state; these states are of great interest, but currently there is limited information about their production in neutrino-nucleus interactions. Detailed investigations of the production of two-particle two-hole states are vital to support upcoming experiments exploring the nature of the neutrino, and the development of the liquid-argon time-projection-chamber has made possible the isolation of such final states. The opening angle between the two protons, the angle between the total proton momentum and the muon, and the total transverse momentum of the final state system are sensitive to the underlying physics processes as embodied in a variety of models. Realistic initial-state momentum distributions are shown to be important in reproducing the data.Comment: To be submitted to PR

Measurement of triple-differential inclusive muon-neutrino charged-current cross section on argon with the MicroBooNE detector

We report the first measurement of the differential cross section $d^{2}\sigma (E_{\nu})/ d\cos(\theta_{\mu}) dP_{\mu}$ for inclusive muon-neutrino charged-current scattering on argon. This measurement utilizes data from 6.4$\times10^{20}$ protons on target of exposure collected using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber located along the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam with a mean neutrino energy of approximately 0.8~GeV. The mapping from reconstructed kinematics to truth quantities, particularly from reconstructed to true neutrino energy, is validated by comparing the distribution of reconstructed hadronic energy in data to that of the model prediction in different muon scattering angle bins after conditional constraint from the muon momentum distribution in data. The success of this validation gives confidence that the missing energy in the MicroBooNE detector is well-modeled in simulation, enabling the unfolding to a triple-differential measurement over muon momentum, muon scattering angle, and neutrino energy. The unfolded measurement covers an extensive phase space, providing a wealth of information useful for future liquid argon time projection chamber experiments measuring neutrino oscillations. Comparisons against a number of commonly used model predictions are included and their performance in different parts of the available phase-space is discussed

New CC0\pi\ GENIE Model Tune for MicroBooNE

A novel tune has been made for the MicroBooNE experiment. The fit uses 4 new parameters within the GENIE v3.0.6 Monte Carlo program. Charged current pionless data from the T2K experiment was used. New uncertainties were obtained. These results will be used in future MicroBooNE analyses.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figure

Differential cross section measurement of charged current νe\nu_{e} interactions without final-state pions in MicroBooNE

In this letter we present the first measurements of an exclusive electron neutrino cross section with the MicroBooNE experiment using data from the Booster Neutrino Beamline at Fermilab. These measurements are made for a selection of charged-current electron neutrinos without final-state pions. Differential cross sections are extracted in energy and angle with respect to the beam for the electron and the leading proton. The differential cross section as a function of proton energy is measured using events with protons both above and below the visibility threshold. This is done by including a separate selection of electron neutrino events without reconstructed proton candidates in addition to those with proton candidates. Results are compared to the predictions from several modern generators, and we find the data agrees well with these models. The data shows best agreement, as quantified by $p$-value, with the generators that predict a lower overall cross section, such as GENIE v3 and NuWro