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Title: First detailed calculation of atmospheric neutrino foregrounds to the diffuse supernova neutrino background in Super-Kamiokande

Journal Article · · Physical Review. D.
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (United States)
  2. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States)

The diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB)—a probe of the core-collapse mechanism and the cosmic star-formation history—has not been detected, but its discovery may be imminent. A significant obstacle for DSNB detection in Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) is detector backgrounds, especially due to atmospheric neutrinos (more precisely, these are foregrounds), which are not sufficiently understood. We perform the first detailed theoretical calculations of these foregrounds in the range 16–90 MeV in detected electron energy, taking into account several physical and detector effects, quantifying uncertainties, and comparing our predictions to the 15.9 live time years of pre-gadolinium data from Super-K stages I–IV. We show that our modeling reasonably reproduces this low-energy data as well as the usual high-energy atmospheric-neutrino data. To accelerate progress on detecting the DSNB, we outline key actions to be taken in future theoretical and experimental work. In a forthcoming paper, we use our modeling to detail how low-energy atmospheric-neutrino events register in Super-K and suggest new cuts to reduce their impact.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); Simons Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF); Ohio State
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
2333028
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2345269
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB--23-515-T; arXiv:2311.05675; oai:inspirehep.net:2721088
Journal Information:
Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 109; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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