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Measurements of Pion and Muon Nuclear Capture at Rest on Argon in the LArIAT Experiment

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
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  1. Illinois Institute of Technology
  2. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
  3. University of Texas at Arlington
  4. Universidade Federal de Goiás
  5. Yale University
  6. University of Chicago
  7. Boston University
  8. Universidade Estadual de Campinas
  9. University of California
  10. Universidade Federal do ABC
  11. Syracuse University
  12. University of Edinburgh
We report the measurement of the final-state products of negative pion and muon nuclear capture at rest on argon by the LArIAT experiment at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility. We measure a population of isolated MeV-scale energy depositions, or blips, in 296 LArIAT events containing tracks from stopping low-momentum pions and muons. The average numbers of visible blips are measured to be 0.74 ± 0.19 and 1.86 ± 0.17 near muon and pion track endpoints, respectively. The 3.6⁢𝜎 statistically significant difference in blip content between muons and pions provides the first demonstration of a new method of pion-muon discrimination in neutrino liquid argon time projection chamber experiments. LArIAT Monte Carlo simulations predict substantially higher average blip counts for negative muon (1.22 ± 0.08) and pion (2.34 ± 0.09) nuclear captures. We attribute this difference to geant4’s inaccurate simulation of the nuclear capture process.
Research Organization:
Boston Univ., MA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
89243024CSC000002; AC02-07CH11359; SC0015628
OSTI ID:
2545100
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2434033
OSTI ID: 3011365
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB--24-0455-PPD
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 134; ISSN 1079-7114; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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