Understanding and Enhancing The Performance of LArTPC Neutrino Detectors for Neutrino Measurements and Beyond the Standard Model Searches

  • Vincent Marc Basque

Student thesis: Phd

Abstract

Liquid Argon Time Project Chambers (LArTPCs) are an important detector technology for current and future measurements in neutrino physics and beyond the standard model searches. This thesis describes four major milestones for the development of LArTPCs, covering both hardware and analysis work. Detector development has been performed primarily in the context of the Short Baseline Near Detector (SBND), where the production of wavelength-shifter coated reflector plates is expected to significantly increase the light yield, which is expected to boost low-energy physics prospects. In addition to this, a non-invasive technique to measure the tension of wires in LArTPCs has been developed, and this method is expected to increase both the speed and accuracy of these measurements in future detectors. Detector development is accompanied by analysis; in this work, we present the first data-driven triggering efficiency measurement for the MicroBooNE experiment and find that the efficiency is flat in the region where MicroBooNE is searching for an excess of low-energy electron neutrino like events. Lastly, we present the first observation of antiprotons in liquid argon from the LArIAT experiment, along with a measurement of the charged hadron multiplicity of such events. This measurement can be used as a handle on future searches for neutron-antineutron oscillation events in large-scale detectors such as DUNE. The charged hadron multiplicity is measured to have a mean and error on the mean of 2.67 +/- 0.36 in data which is consistent with the expectation of 2.91 +/- 0.15 from simulation.
Date of Award31 Dec 2021
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • The University of Manchester
SupervisorStefan Soldner-Rembold (Supervisor) & Justin Evans (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • TPB
  • neutron oscillation
  • Fermilab
  • hardware
  • antiproton annihilation
  • scintillation light
  • SBND
  • LArTPC
  • neutrino
  • particle physics
  • MicroBooNE

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