Gao, Fan
(2023)
Measurement of Muon Antineutrino Charged-Current Neutral Pion Production Differential Cross Section in the NOvA Near Detector.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
The NOvA (NuMI Off-axis $\nu_e$ Appearance) experiment aims to answer some of the outstanding questions in neutrino oscillation physics. As a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, NOvA is primarily designed to measure the $\nu_{\mu}/\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$ disappearance and $\nu_e/\bar{\nu}_e$ appearance in the off-axis Fermilab NuMI beam. It uses two functionally identical liquid scintillator detectors separated by 810 km and a narrow band beam centered around 2 GeV. The high statistics data in the NOvA near detector can be used to perform precise neutrino interaction cross-section measurements.
This thesis describes the measurement of the differential cross section for the $\bar{\nu}_{\mu}$ charged-current (CC) $\pi^0$ production in the NOvA near detector, using data collected from June 2016 to February 2019, corresponding to an exposure of $11.97\times 10^{20}$ protons-on-target (POT) of a primarily antineutrino beam. While the related neutrino-induced process has several precise measurements, the measurement using the antineutrino mode data is much less studied. It is of particular importance for the oscillation measurements, as energetic $\pi^0$ produced in $\Delta$ resonance, deep-inelastic interactions, or final state interactions (FSI) are a significant background to the $\nu_e$ appearance channel as the photons coming from $\pi^0$ decay may be misidentified as electrons. The analysis uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on individually simulated particles to identify $\pi^0$ in the final state, which is critical for removing bias coming from the cross-section model. A data-driven template fit approach is used to constrain backgrounds. The flux-integrated differential cross section is measured with respect to final-state $\pi^0$ momentum and angle, as well as the total cross section integrated over the $\pi^0$ kinematic phase space.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
|
| Date: |
6 September 2023 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
30 January 2023 |
| Approval Date: |
6 September 2023 |
| Submission Date: |
12 June 2023 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
200 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Physics |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
neutrino physics, NOvA experiment, cross-section measurement, neutral pion production |
| Date Deposited: |
06 Sep 2023 15:52 |
| Last Modified: |
06 Sep 2023 15:52 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/44965 |
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