Search for an anomalous excess of charged-current νe interactions without pions in the final state with the MicroBooNE experiment

This paper presents a measurement of νe interactions with the MicroBooNE experiment and an investigation into the excess of low-energy electromagnetic interactions observed by the MiniBooNE collaboration. A measurement of νe interactions without pions in the final state is performed in exclusive channels with (1eNp0π) and without (1e0p0π) visible final-state protons. This analysis uses a dataset collected from September 2016 to July 2019, corresponding to a total exposure of 6.86×1020 protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermilab. The data is found to be consistent at the 10-20% level with the nominal prediction of neutrino interactions using a goodness of fit test, but an enhancement of the event topologies measured by the 1e0p0π channel cannot be ruled out. A model based on the low energy excess observed in MiniBooNE is introduced to quantify the strength of a possible νe excess. Results in the combined 1eNp0π + 1e0p0π channel do not give a conclusive indication about the tested model. This stems from data trends that go in opposite directions in the separate channels, and in both cases the nominal model is disfavored at the 90% confidence level.

Links

A link to the paper submitted to Phys. Rev. D is posted on the archive at arXiv:2110.14065.

 

Back to the electron-neutrino analysis overview.