Date of Award
Spring 2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Physics
First Advisor
Fleming, Bonnie
Abstract
This dissertation presents the first-ever measurements of the inclusive flux-averaged differential cross sections for neutral-current neutral pion production in $\pi^0$ momentum and cos$\theta$ on argon, as well as exclusive cross section measurements based on proton multiplicity. The NC$\pi^0$ channel is a significant source of photon background in long-baseline neutrino oscillation appearance searches and in NC$\Delta$ single-gamma production rate in MicroBooNE. The lack of previous measurements in the sub-GeV to few GeV neutrino energy region, specifically on argon, makes this investigation a priority.The measurements were conducted using the MicroBooNE detector, which is a Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber exposed to the Fermilab Booster Neutrino beam with mean energy below 1 GeV. Neutrino interactions in the detector were reconstructed using the Wire-Cell paradigm, which includes tools for noise filtering, signal processing, pattern recognition, energy reconstruction, and particle identification. A dedicated selection targeting NC$\pi^0$ interactions was applied, resulting in efficiency and purity of approximately 34.3\% and 47\%, respectively. The final cross section measurements were extracted using the Wiener-SVD unfolding method and compared with predictions from various models. This work provides crucial information for constraining photon backgrounds and improving neutrino oscillation appearance measurements, particularly for the upcoming DUNE experiment.
Recommended Citation
Scanavini, Giacomo, "Neutral-Current Neutral Pion Production Measurement in MicroBooNE Using WireCell" (2023). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1023.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1023
