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Measurement of single charged pion production in charged-current $ν_μ$-Ar interactions with the MicroBooNE detector

MicroBooNE collaboration, P. Abratenko, D. Andrade Aldana, L. Arellano, J. Asaadi, A. Ashkenazi, S. Balasubramanian, B. Baller, A. Barnard, G. Barr, D. Barrow, J. Barrow, V. Basque, J. Bateman, B. Behera, O. Benevides Rodrigues, S. Berkman, A. Bhat, M. Bhattacharya, V. Bhelande, M. Bishai, A. Blake, B. Bogart, T. Bolton, M. B. Brunetti, L. Camilleri, D. Caratelli, F. Cavanna, G. Cerati, A. Chappell, Y. Chen, J. M. Conrad, M. Convery, L. Cooper-Troendle, J. I. Crespo-Anadon, R. Cross, M. Del Tutto, S. R. Dennis, P. Detje, A. Devitt, R. Diurba, Z. Djurcic, K. Duffy, S. Dytman, B. Eberly, P. Englezos, A. Ereditato, J. J. Evans, C. Fang, B. T. Fleming, W. Foreman, D. Franco, A. P. Furmanski, F. Gao, D. Garcia-Gamez, S. Gardiner, G. Ge, S. Gollapinni, E. Gramellini, P. Green, H. Greenlee, L. Gu, W. Gu, R. Guenette, P. Guzowski, L. Hagaman, M. D. Handley, O. Hen, C. Hilgenberg, G. A. Horton-Smith, A. Hussain, B. Irwin, M. S. Ismail, C. James, X. Ji, J. H. Jo, R. A. Johnson, D. Kalra, G. Karagiorgi, W. Ketchum, M. Kirby, T. Kobilarcik, K. Kumar, N. Lane, J. -Y. Li, Y. Li, K. Lin, B. R. Littlejohn, L. Liu, W. C. Louis, X. Luo, T. Mahmud, N. Majeed, C. Mariani, J. Marshall, N. Martinez, D. A. Martinez Caicedo, S. Martynenko, A. Mastbaum, I. Mawby, N. McConkey, L. Mellet, J. Mendez, J. Micallef, T. Mohayai, A. Mogan, M. Mooney, A. F. Moor, C. D. Moore, L. Mora Lepin, M. M. Moudgalya, S. Mulleria Babu, D. Naples, A. Navrer-Agasson, N. Nayak, M. Nebot-Guinot, C. Nguyen, J. Nowak, N. Oza, O. Palamara, N. Pallat, V. Paolone, A. Papadopoulou, V. Papavassiliou, H. Parkinson, S. F. Pate, N. Patel, Z. Pavlovic, E. Piasetzky, K. Pletcher, I. Pophale, X. Qian, J. L. Raaf, V. Radeka, A. Rafique, M. Reggiani-Guzzo, J. Rodriguez Rondon, M. Rosenberg, M. Ross-Lonergan, I. Safa, D. W. Schmitz, A. Schukraft, W. Seligman, M. H. Shaevitz, R. Sharankova, J. Shi, A. Smith, E. L. Snider, S. Soldner-Rembold, J. Spitz, M. Stancari, J. St. John, T. Strauss, A. M. Szelc, N. Taniuchi, K. Terao, C. Thorpe, D. Torbunov, D. Totani, M. Toups, A. Trettin, Y. -T. Tsai, J. Tyler, M. A. Uchida, T. Usher, B. Viren, J. Wang, M. Weber, H. Wei, A. J. White, S. Wolbers, T. Wongjirad, K. Wresilo, W. Wu, E. Yandel, T. Yang, L. E. Yates, H. W. Yu, G. P. Zeller, J. Zennamo, C. Zhang

TL;DR

We present flux-averaged CC νμ cross sections on argon for final states with exactly one charged pion, using MicroBooNE data in the Booster Neutrino Beam corresponding to $1.11\times 10^{21}$ POT under phase-space cuts $p_{\mu}>150~\mathrm{MeV}$, $p_{\pi}>100~\mathrm{MeV}$, and $\theta_{\mu\pi}<2.65$ rad. The analysis employs a Wiener-SVD unfolding to obtain cross sections in regularized truth space and compares results to multiple generators (GENIE, NuWro, NEUT, GiBUU), reporting a total cross section of $\sigma = (3.75 \pm 0.07\,\mathrm{(stat.)} \pm 0.80\,\mathrm{(syst.)})\times 10^{-38}$ cm$^{2}$/Ar at $\langle E_ν\rangle \approx 0.8$ GeV. Overall agreement with generators is good except at very forward muon angles and in certain pion-kinematic observables, highlighting areas for improvement in low-$Q^2$ resonance production and pion final-state interactions in argon. This work also provides the first pion-momentum differential measurement on argon via an unscattered-pion subset, offering new input for tuning neutrino-nucleus interaction models in argon-based experiments like DUNE/SBN.

Abstract

We present flux-averaged charged-current $ν_μ$ cross-section measurements on argon for final states containing exactly one $π^\pm$ and no other hadrons except nucleons. The analysis uses data from the MicroBooNE experiment in the Booster Neutrino Beam, corresponding to $1.11 \times 10^{21}$ protons on target. Total and single-differential cross-section measurements are provided within a phase space restricted to muon momenta above 150 MeV, pion momenta above 100 MeV, and muon-pion opening angles smaller than 2.65 rad. Differential cross sections are reported with respect to the scattering angles of the muon and pion relative to the beam direction, their momenta, and their combined opening angle. The differential cross section with respect to muon momentum is based on a subset of selected events with the muon track fully contained in the detector, whereas the cross section with respect to pion momentum is based on a subset of selected events rich in pions that have not hadronically scattered on the argon before coming to rest. The latter has not been measured on argon before. The total cross section is measured as $(3.75~\pm~0.07~\textrm{(stat.)}~\pm~0.80~\textrm{(syst.)}) \times 10^{-38} \, \text{cm}^2/\text{Ar}$ at a mean energy of approximately 0.8 GeV. Comparisons of the measured cross sections with predictions from multiple neutrino-nucleus interaction generators show good overall agreement, except at very forward muon angles.

Measurement of single charged pion production in charged-current $ν_μ$-Ar interactions with the MicroBooNE detector

TL;DR

We present flux-averaged CC νμ cross sections on argon for final states with exactly one charged pion, using MicroBooNE data in the Booster Neutrino Beam corresponding to POT under phase-space cuts , , and rad. The analysis employs a Wiener-SVD unfolding to obtain cross sections in regularized truth space and compares results to multiple generators (GENIE, NuWro, NEUT, GiBUU), reporting a total cross section of cm/Ar at GeV. Overall agreement with generators is good except at very forward muon angles and in certain pion-kinematic observables, highlighting areas for improvement in low- resonance production and pion final-state interactions in argon. This work also provides the first pion-momentum differential measurement on argon via an unscattered-pion subset, offering new input for tuning neutrino-nucleus interaction models in argon-based experiments like DUNE/SBN.

Abstract

We present flux-averaged charged-current cross-section measurements on argon for final states containing exactly one and no other hadrons except nucleons. The analysis uses data from the MicroBooNE experiment in the Booster Neutrino Beam, corresponding to protons on target. Total and single-differential cross-section measurements are provided within a phase space restricted to muon momenta above 150 MeV, pion momenta above 100 MeV, and muon-pion opening angles smaller than 2.65 rad. Differential cross sections are reported with respect to the scattering angles of the muon and pion relative to the beam direction, their momenta, and their combined opening angle. The differential cross section with respect to muon momentum is based on a subset of selected events with the muon track fully contained in the detector, whereas the cross section with respect to pion momentum is based on a subset of selected events rich in pions that have not hadronically scattered on the argon before coming to rest. The latter has not been measured on argon before. The total cross section is measured as at a mean energy of approximately 0.8 GeV. Comparisons of the measured cross sections with predictions from multiple neutrino-nucleus interaction generators show good overall agreement, except at very forward muon angles.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 19 sections, 6 equations, 10 figures, 4 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The MicroBooNE Experiment
  3. The Booster Neutrino Beam
  4. The MicroBooNE Detector
  5. Simulation
  6. Reconstruction
  7. Analysis Overview
  8. Event Selection
  9. Preselection
  10. Boosted Decision Trees
  11. Single Pion Signal Selection
  12. Unscattered Pion Subset
  13. Contained Muon Subset
  14. Selection Performance
  15. Background Modeling
  16. ...and 4 more sections

Figures (10)

  • Figure 1: Event display from the collection plane of the detector showing a selected event consisting of a long muon candidate, a shorter proton candidate, and a charged pion candidate appearing to decay to a Michel electron via a muon. Cosmic rays are visible in the bottom left corner, and sections of the tracks are missing due to unresponsive detector wires.
  • Figure 2: Stacked histograms of muon, proton and unscattered pion BDT scores of reconstructed particles. The plots show the distributions at the respective selection steps with all prior cuts applied as described in Sec. \ref{['sec:ccpiSelection']} and \ref{['sec:unsactteredPionSubset']}. The particle with the highest muon BDT score is used as the muon candidate in fully contained events. The proton BDT plot then shows particles other than the selected muon candidates. Finally, the unscattered pion BDT plot only shows pion candidates identified in the general selection.
  • Figure 3: The relative difference between true and reconstructed pion momentum deviations as defined in Eq. \ref{['eq:resolution']} for correctly identified pion candidates in selected signal events, with green representing events passing the unscattered pion BDT cut and blue representing all other events in the general selection. Together they show all events in the general selection.
  • Figure 4: True pion momentum distribution of all signal events, showing contributions from true scattered and unscattered charged pions as predicted by GENIE + Geant4.
  • Figure 5: The relative difference between true and reconstructed muon momentum for correctly identified muon candidates in selected signal events, with cyan being contained and red being uncontained muons. Together they show all events in the general selection.
  • ...and 5 more figures