Search for Neutrino-Induced Neutral-Current $\mathrm{\Delta }$ Radiative Decay in MicroBooNE and a First Test of the MiniBooNE Low Energy Excess under a Single-Photon Hypothesis

Journal Article · Mon Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.111801· OSTI ID:1854650

Abratenko, P.; An, R.; Anthony, J.; Arellano, L.; Asaadi, J.; Ashkenazi, A.; Balasubramanian, S.; Baller, B.; Barnes, C.; Barr, G.; Basque, V.; Bathe-Peters, L.; Benevides Rodrigues, O.; Berkman, S.; Bhanderi, A.; Bhat, A.; Bishai, M.; Blake, A.; Bolton, T.; Book, J. Y. ; Camilleri, L.; Caratelli, D.; Caro Terrazas, I.; Castillo Fernandez, R.; Cavanna, F.; Cerati, G.; Chen, Y.; Cianci, D.; Conrad, J. M.; Convery, M.; Cooper-Troendle, L.; Crespo-Anadón, J. I.; Del Tutto, M.; Dennis, S. R.; Detje, P.; Devitt, A.; Diurba, R.; Dorrill, R.; Duffy, K.; Dytman, S.; Eberly, B.; Ereditato, A.; Evans, J. J.; Fine, R.; Fiorentini Aguirre, G. A.; Fitzpatrick, R. S.; Fleming, B. T.; Foppiani, N.; Franco, D.; Furmanski, A. P.; Garcia-Gamez, D.; Gardiner, S.; Ge, G.; Gollapinni, S.; Goodwin, O.; Gramellini, E.; Green, P.; Greenlee, H.; Gu, W.; Guenette, R.; Guzowski, P.; Hagaman, L.; Hen, O.; Hilgenberg, C.; Horton-Smith, G. A.; Hourlier, A.; Itay, R.; James, C.; Ji, X.; Jiang, L.; Jo, J. H.; Johnson, R. A.; Jwa, Y. -J.; Kalra, D.; Kamp, N.; Kaneshige, N.; Karagiorgi, G.; Ketchum, W.; Kirby, M.; Kobilarcik, T.; Kreslo, I.; LaZur, R.; Lepetic, I.; Li, K.; Li, Y.; Lin, K.; Littlejohn, B. R.; Louis, W. C.; Luo, X.; Manivannan, K.; Mariani, C.; Marsden, D.; Marshall, J.; Martinez Caicedo, D. A.; Mason, K.; Mastbaum, A.; McConkey, N.; Meddage, V.; Mettler, T.; Miller, K.; Mills, J.; Mistry, K.; Mogan, A.; Mohayai, T.; Moon, J.; Mooney, M.; Moor, A. F.; Moore, C. D.; Mora Lepin, L.; Mousseau, J.; Murphy, M.; Murrells, R.; Naples, D.; Navrer-Agasson, A.; Nebot-Guinot, M.; Neely, R. K.; Newmark, D. A.; Nowak, J.; Nunes, M.; Palamara, O.; Paolone, V.; Papadopoulou, A.; Papavassiliou, V.; Pate, S. F.; Patel, N.; Paudel, A.; Pavlovic, Z.; Piasetzky, E.; Ponce-Pinto, I. D.; Prince, S.; Qian, X.; Raaf, J. L.; Radeka, V.; Rafique, A.; Reggiani-Guzzo, M.; Ren, L.; Rice, L. C. J.; Rochester, L.; Rodriguez Rondon, J.; Rosenberg, M.; Ross-Lonergan, M. ; Scanavini, G.; Schmitz, D. W.; Schukraft, A.; Seligman, W.; Shaevitz, M. H.; Sharankova, R.; Shi, J.; Sinclair, J.; Smith, A.; Snider, E. L.; Soderberg, M.; Söldner-Rembold, S.; Spentzouris, P.; Spitz, J.; Stancari, M.; John, J. St.; Strauss, T.; Sutton, K.; Sword-Fehlberg, S.; Szelc, A. M.; Tang, W.; Terao, K.; Thorpe, C.; Totani, D.; Toups, M.; Tsai, Y. -T.; Uchida, M. A.; Usher, T.; Van De Pontseele, W.; Viren, B.; Weber, M.; Wei, H.; Williams, Z.; Wolbers, S.; Wongjirad, T.; Wospakrik, M.; Wresilo, K.; Wright, N.; Wu, W.; Yandel, E.; Yang, T.; Yarbrough, G.; Yates, L. E.; Yu, H. W.; Zeller, G. P.; Zennamo, J.; Zhang, C.

We report results from a search for neutrino-induced neutral current (NC) resonant Δ(1232) baryon production followed by Δ radiative decay, with a $$\langle$$0.8$$\rangle$$ GeV neutrino beam. Data corresponding to MicroBooNE’s first three years of operations (6.80 X 10²⁰ protons on target) are used to select single-photon events with one or zero protons and without charged leptons in the final state (1γ1p and 1γ0p, respectively). The background is constrained via an in situ high-purity measurement of NC π⁰ events, made possible via dedicated 2γ1p and 2γ0p selections. A total of 16 and 153 events are observed for the 1γ1p and 1γ0p selections, respectively, compared to a constrained background prediction of 20.5 ± 3.65(syst) and 145.1 ± 13.8(syst) events. The data lead to a bound on an anomalous enhancement of the normalization of NC Δ radiative decay of less than 2.3 times the predicted nominal rate for this process at the 90% confidence level (C.L.). The measurement disfavors a candidate photon interpretation of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess as a factor of 3.18 times the nominal NC Δ radiative decay rate at the 94.8% C.L., in favor of the nominal prediction, and represents a greater than 50-fold improvement over the world’s best limit on single-photon production in NC interactions in the sub-GeV neutrino energy range.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Contributing Organization: MicroBooNE Collaboration
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359; 89233218CNA000001; AC02-76SF00515; SC0023471; SC0007859
• OSTI ID: 1854650
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1832817; OSTI ID: 1868243; OSTI ID: 1871646; OSTI ID: 1897456; OSTI ID: 1906309; OSTI ID: 1972680
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-21-463-ND; arXiv:2110.00409; LA-UR-21-29820; LA-UR-22-31532; PRLTAO; 111801
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Vol. 128 Journal Issue: 11; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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