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At least 271 records · Page 15

Measurement of the differential cross section for neutral pion production in charged-current muon neutrino interactions on argon with the MicroBooNE detector

We present a measurement of neutral pion production in charged-current interactions using data recorded with the MicroBooNE detector exposed to Fermilab’s booster neutrino beam. The signal comprises one muon, one neutral pion, any number of nucleons, and no charged pions. Studying neutral pion production in the MicroBooNE detector provides an opportunity to better understand neutrino-argon interactions, and is crucial for future accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiments. Using a dataset corresponding to 6.86 ×10 20 protons on target, we present single-differential cross sections in muon and neutral pion momenta, scattering angles with respect to the beam for the outgoing muon and neutral pion, as well as the opening angle between the muon and neutral pion. Data extracted cross sections are compared to generator predictions. We report good agreement between the data and the models for scattering angles, except for an over-prediction by generators at muon forward angles. Similarly, the agreement between data and the models as a function of momentum is good, except for an underprediction by generators in the medium momentum ranges, 200–400 MeV for muons and 100–200 MeV for pions.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

An Energy-Integrated Analysis for Measuring the Anomalous Precession Frequenzc for the Muon g - 2 Experiment at Fermilab

In the search for physics beyond the Standard Model, the Muon g - 2 Experiment at Fermilab (E989) will make the most precise measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, a μ . Improvements in precision come from both increased statistics and new techniques to significantly reduce previous systematic uncertainties. The muon a μ is determined by extracting both the anomalous spin precession frequency, ω a , and the average magnetic field sampled by the muons, B. Traditionally an energy threshold analysis method which requires reconstruction of decay positrons from the muon decay, μ + → e + ν e ν μ has been used to extract ω a . This thesis will describe a novel, energy-integrated analysis method for ωa extraction that does not require full reconstruction of positron hits and lowers the energy threshold therefore sampling more of the stored muons. This new technique has different sensitivities to effects like gain fluctuations and positron pulse pile-up. The analysis results will focus on data taken in 2019, the second year of running the experiment.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The MICE Demonstration of Muon Ionization Cooling

Muon beams of low emittance provide the basis for the intense, well-characterised neutrino beams necessary to elucidate the physics of flavour at the Neutrino Factory and to provide lepton-antilepton collisions up to several TeV at the Muon Collider. The international Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) will demonstrate muon ionization cooling, the technique proposed to reduce the phase-space volume occupied by the muon beam at such facilities. In an ionization-cooling channel, the muon beam traverses a material (the absorber) loosing energy, which is replaced using RF cavities. The combined effect is to reduce the transverse emittance of the beam (transverse cooling). The configuration of MICE required to deliver the demonstration of ionization cooling is being prepared in parallel to the execution of a programme designed to measure the cooling properties of liquid-hydrogen and lithium hydride. The design of the cooling-demonstration experiment will be presented together with a summary of the performance of each of its components and the cooling performance of the experiment.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Initial Studies into Longitudinal Ionization Cooling for the Muon g-2 Experiment

Fermilab's Muon g-2 experiment aims to measure the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon to an unprecedented precision of 140 ppb. It relies on large numbers of muons surviving many turns in the storage ring without colliding with the sides, at least long enough for the muons to decay. Longitudinal ionization cooling is introduced with respect to Fermilab's Muon g-2 experiment in an attempt to increase storage and through this the statistics and quality of results. The ionization cooling is introduced to the beam through a material wedge, an initial simulation study is made into the positioning, material, and geometrical parameters of this wedge using G4Beamline. Results suggest a significant increase of 20 - 30% in the number of stored muons when the optimal wedge is included in the simulation.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

The US effort towards a muon collider

A multi-TeV muon collider has the unique potential to provide both precision measurements and the highest energy reach in one machine that cannot be paralleled by any currently available technology. There has been significant physics interest on Muon Colliders recently as indicated by the number of publications, relevant workshops, Snowmass activities but also the P5 report. This study describes a possible set of R&D and deliverables of the muon collider accelerator R&D program in the U.S. We describe high-priority studies to be performed in the first phase that will address critical questions for deciding the future plan for a muon collider design. The goal of these studies is to firm up choices for the most challenging components of a muon collider design, and to propose and begin testing and prototyping of components and systems that are needed to have confidence in and inform our specification choices. Key areas wherein the US can provide critical contributions to the newly formed international muon collider collaboration will be discussed as well.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Mulan: a part-per-million measurement of the muon lifetime and determination of the Fermi constant

The part-per-million measurement of the positive muon lifetime and determination of the Fermi constant by the MuLan experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute is reviewed. The experiment used an innovative, time-structured, surface muon beam and a near-4 \pi π , finely-segmented, plastic scintillator positron detector. Two in-vacuum muon stopping targets were used: a ferromagnetic foil with a large internal magnetic field, and a quartz crystal in a moderate external magnetic field. The experiment acquired a dataset of 1.6 \times 10^{12} 1.6 × 10 12 positive muon decays and obtained a muon lifetime \tau_{\mu} = 2\, 196\, 980.3(2.2) τ μ = 2 196 980.3 ( 2.2 ) ~ps (1.0~ppm) and Fermi constant G _F = 1.166\, 378\, 7(6) \times 10^{-5} F = 1.166 378 7 ( 6 ) × 10 − 5 GeV ^{-2} − 2 (0.5~ppm). The thirty-fold improvement in \tau_{\mu} τ μ has proven valuable for precision measurements in nuclear muon capture and the commensurate improvement in G _F F has proven valuable for precision tests of the standard model.

Carey, Rebecca↗

Muon Emittance Exchange with a Potato Slicer

We propose a novel scheme for final muon ionization cooling with quadrupole doublets followed by emittance exchange in vacuum to achieve the small beam sizes needed by a muon collider. A flat muon beam with a series of quadrupole doublet half cells appears to provide the strong focusing required for final cooling. Each quadrupole doublet has a low beta region occupied by a dense, low Z absorber. After final cooling, normalized transverse, longitudinal, and angular momentum emittances of 0.100, 2.5, and 0.200 mm-rad are exchanged into 0.025, 70, and 0.0 mm-rad. A skew quadrupole triplet transforms a round muon bunch with modest angular momentum into a flat bunch with no angular momentum. Thin electrostatic septa efficiently slice the flat bunch into 17 parts. The 17 bunches are interleaved into a 3.7 meter long train with RF deflector cavities. Snap bunch coalescence combines the muon bunch train longitudinally in a 21 GeV ring in 55 µs, one quarter of a synchrotron oscillation period. A linear long wavelength RF bucket gives each bunch a different energy causing the bunches to drift in the ring until they merge into one bunch and can be captured in a short wavelength RF bucket with a 13% muon decay loss and a packing fraction as high as 87 %.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Observation of multiple-muon seasonal variations in the NOνA Near Detector

The interaction of a cosmic ray particle with an element of the atmosphere results in a cascade of particles, known as extensive air showers, which can be divided into three main branches, known as the hadronic, the electromagnetic, and the muonic component. As for the latter, since muons can reach high depths underground, they are generally used to study cosmic rays at different underground depths. The dynamics of extensive air showers is directly connected to the density of the atmosphere, as it defines the probability of particles to decay or interact. As muons are mainly produced from the decay of pions and kaons, and a warmer atmosphere results in higher number of meson decays, such particles are prone to suffer a seasonality effect that is directly correlated to the yearly seasonal variations of the atmosphere, an effect that has been verified by a large number of experiments over the past six decades. In 2015 the MINOS experiment presented an anti-correlation between the effective temperature of the atmosphere and the seasonality of the muon flux for multiplicities higher than one (i.e. more than one muon track per cosmic ray event). Said anti-correlation is not yet fully understood, counting with only a qualitative hypothesis as a probable mechanism. As such, the main goals of this study are to verify the MINOS anti-correlation effect and extend the study to verify the seasonality of the effect as a function of different variables in order to improve the understanding of the phenomenon and possible corroborations with the known hypothesis. Two full years of the NO$\nu$A Near Detector, ranging from April 2015 to April 2017, were used as the dataset for the analysis. The anti-correlation between the multiple muon flux and the effective temperature of the atmosphere is confirmed by the NO$\nu$A Near Detector, being in full agreement with the results presented by the MINOS Collaboration. The seasonal effect is also broken down by different variables: i) track separation, ii) zenith angle, iii) track angular separation, and iv) multiplicity. Different regions of these variables represent different energy ranges for the detected underground muons, their hadron parents or the primary particles that originated the cosmic ray shower, being a way to verify any particular dependency with energy. The results show that there are no clear trends in any of the studied variables, except for the multiplicity, in which the intensity of the seasonal variation increases for higher multiplicities.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Using Muons to Image the Subsurface

Muons are subatomic particles that can penetrate the earth’s crust several kilometers and may be useful for subsurface characterization. The absorption rate of muons depends on the density of the materials through which they pass. Muons are more sensitive to density variation than other phenomena, including gravity, making them beneficial for subsurface investigation. Measurements of muon flux rate at differing directions provide density variations of the materials between the muon source (cosmic rays and neutrino interactions) and the detector, much like a CAT scan. Currently, muon tomography can resolve features to the sub-meter scale.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Study of Muon Monitor Data to Maintain the Quality of the NuMI Neutrino Beam at Fermilab [Poster]

A muon monitor which measures muon beam profile, is a key beam element to maintain the quality of muon neutrino beam. Three arrays of muon monitors located in the downstream of the hadron absorber provide the measurements of the primary beam quality. We studied the response of muon monitors with the proton beam profile changes and focusing horn current variations. The responses of muon monitors have been used to implement Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to monitor the beam quality.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Overview of the Muon 𝑔 − 2 Experiment at Fermilab

Searching for anomalies is one of the most interesting approaches to physics research. Many particle physicists look for discrepancies between experimental measurements and theoretical predictions because we know that identifying and understanding anomalies can be a major component of building a more fundamental description of nature. The Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab measures the magnetic anomaly of the muon with extremely high precision. In 2021, the Muon g-2 Collaboration reported its first result at a precision of 460 ppb based on the first data-taking run comprising 6% of the total data set to be collected. This result is in good agreement with the previous measurement from Brookhaven National Laboratory, giving greater certainty to the world average of the experimental value. The next even higher precision Muon g-2 result will play an important role given the recent tensions between data-driven dispersive and lattice QCD calculations to predict the hadronic vacuum polarization contribution. I begin this talk with a review of muon g-2 physics and the experimental technique. Then I present a timeline including the past Run 1 result milestone, current status of Runs 2/3 analysis, and projections to finalize work on the final data from Runs 4/5/6. I conclude with a brief discussion of new ideas and future plans for the Muon g-2 experiment after the completion of Run 6.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Dark Matter Search in the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab

Dark matter is one of the most interesting research topics in physics. Many particle physicists are trying to identify it because we know that dark matter could be a major component of a complete fundamental description of nature. The Muon g-2 Experiment at Fermilab measures the anomalous precession frequency of the muon. Oscillations of this precession frequency could be produced by dark matter coupling to muons. This talk will describe how we could observe DM signals in the Muon g-2 data. I will explain how we determine the Muon g-2 DM mass range sensitivity, and analysis strategies throughout the mass range. Finally, I will present the expected Muon g-2 experiment discovery/exclusion reach in selected DM model-dependent scenarios.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Measurement of Triple-Differential Inclusive Muon Neutrino Charged-Current Cross Sections on Argon with the MicroBooNE Detector

We report the first measurement of the differential cross section $d^2σ(E_ν)/dcos(θ_µ)dP_µ$for inclusive muon neutrino charged-current scattering on argon. This measurement utilizes data from6.5×10 20 protons on target of exposure collected using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber located on-axis in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam with a mean neutrino energy of approximately 0.8 GeV. In this note, the mapping from reconstructed kinematics to truth quantities, particularly from reconstructed to true neutrino energy, is validated by comparing the distribution of reconstructed hadronic energy in data to that of the model prediction in different muon scattering angle bins after conditional constraint from the muon momentum distribution in data. The success of this validation gives confidence that the missing energy in the MicroBooNE detector is well-modeled within its uncertainties in simulation, enabling the unfolding to an energy-dependent triple-differential measurement over muon momentum, muon scattering angle, and neutrino energy. The unfolded measurement covers an extensive phase space, providing a wealth of information useful for future LArTPC experiments measuring neutrino oscillations. Comparisons with model predictions show the best agreement with Neut 5.4.0.1 at low energy, and with NuWro 19.02.01 at higher energies, particularly at forward muon scattering angles.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

T-1072: Beam test for muon strips

Beam test for muon strips is an experiment to measure the efficiency, time resolution and longitudinal position resolution of scintillator strips for a muon system at future colliders. The muon system at future colliders is envisioned as several layers of position-sensitive detectors embedded in the iron flux-return yoke of the solenoidal magnet. The role of the muon system is primarily the identification of muons and track matching to the central tracker, besides serving as the tail catcher for the hadronic showers that penetrate beyond the hadron calorimetry. Previous tests performed at Fermilab with cosmic muons have shown that scintillators with wavelength-shifting (WLS) fibers and a SiPM readout offer promising performance (NIM A 823, 2016, pp.120-125). The purpose of the present beam tests is to determine the performance parameters with better accuracy. The measurement setup is schematically presented in Fig. 1. The length of the tested strips will vary between 1 m and 2 m. The scintillator strip to be tested will be placed horizontally perpendicular to the beam on a platform in the area behind the beam dump of MT6.2. Two fast scintillators S1 and S2 with vacuum PMT readout will be placed in front and after the tested strip in the beam. The distance between S1 and S2 is 1 m. One fast scintillator strip S3 will be placed in beam immediately in front of the tested strip, perpendicular to the tested strip. A rack with a CAMAC crate and two NIM crates will be used for the data acquisition. The data collection will be performed and monitored from a PC with USB connection to the CAMAC Crate controller.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Measurement of charged-current quasi elastic-like and inclusive muon (anti-) neutrino interactions using NuMI beam the ICARUS detector

The ICARUS experiment, utilizing Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) technology, has been successfully taking physics data at Fermilab since June 2022. The experiment's primary objective is to function as the far detector of the Short Baseline Neutrino program (SBN), searching for hints of physics beyond three-flavour PMNS neutrino oscillations. ICARUS also offers other diverse physics capabilities, including searches beyond the standard model and measurements of cross-sections. In addition to being exposed to the Booster Neutrino (BNB) beamline of the SBN experiment, ICARUS sits 795 m downstream and 5.75 degrees off-axis from the NuMI beam line. Due to the off-axis angle between NuMI and ICARUS, coupled with contributions from both pion and kaon decays to neutrino fluxes, interactions of NuMI neutrinos within ICARUS can be detected over a range of several GeV in energy. Measurements of these interactions present unique opportunities to infer neutrino interaction cross sections on an argon nuclear target within an energy range that overlaps both the SBN oscillation search and a significant portion of the DUNE spectrum. This poster will summarize the current status of muon-neutrino and muon-antineutrino charged current inclusive cross section measurements in ICARUS using the FHC and RHC NuMI sample respectively. Such inclusive measurements provide robust benchmarks for the overall interaction rate and muon kinematics, with reduced dependence on hadronic final-state modeling. The measurement of the muon-antineutrino Argon charged current inclusive cross section is particularly exciting and highly relevant for DUNE, given the scarcity of antineutrino-Argon cross section measurements in the literature. In addition, this poster will highlight ICARUS's first measurement of muon-neutrino Argon charged current mesonless final states using both transverse kinematic imbalance (TKI) variables and muon-proton kinematic variables. These measurements provide sensitivity to nuclear effects, final-state interactions, and nucleon correlations in argon, offering important constraints for improving neutrino interaction modeling for upcoming DUNE.

Roy, Promita [Fermilab; Virginia Tech.]↗

Improved Muon Energy Estimation Using a Detailed Model of Multiple Coulomb Scattering in the MicroBooNE LArTPC

We present an improved technique for estimating a muon's energy by measuring the deflections along its path inside the MicroBooNE detector from multiple Coulomb scattering (MCS). This approach implements several innovations that better capture detector non-idealizations compared to previous MCS-based muon energy estimators. As a result, it achieves improved resolution, reduced bias, and better data-model agreement. Using model simulation, for fully contained events the estimated bias is within 1\% and the estimated resolution narrows from 10\% to 4.3\% as muon energy increases from 0.1\,GeV to 2\,GeV. For events with particles exiting the detector volume, at least a meter of reconstructed muon track, and a muon energy below 2\,GeV, the estimated bias is less than 2\% and the estimated resolution varies from 7\% to 17\% over muon energy. These demonstrate significant improvements over the performance of previous work using an MCS-based energy estimator at MicroBooNE~\cite{mcs_2017}, which exhibited approximately twice worse resolution and a bias of 20\% over the same energy region. Data-model goodness-of-fit studies are used to validate the estimator's performance on data, showing good agreement within model uncertainties.

Cooper-Troendle, London [U. Pittsburgh (main); Fer↗

A Cryogenic Muon Tagging System Integrated with a Superconducting Qubit Device for Radiation-Induced Error Mitigation

Superconducting qubits are highly sensitive to ionizing radiation, which can induce correlated errors and limit scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing. In particular, cosmic-ray muons can deposit energy in the substrate, generating phonon bursts that break Cooper pairs and produce quasiparticles, leading to correlated decoherence events across multiple qubits. We present the development of a cryogenic muon tagging system based on Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) and its integration with superconducting quantum hardware. Originally developed within the ACE-SuperQ project and validated as a standalone detector, the system demonstrated a muon tagging efficiency of approximately 90% and excellent agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. Building on this validation, the tagging system has been integrated with a multi-qubit superconducting chip operated in a dilution refrigerator. The detector configuration consists of a multi-layer KID stack arranged above and below the quantum device, enabling time-coincident identification of muon-induced events within the same cryogenic environment. The integrated setup has been successfully commissioned, enabling simultaneous operation of the qubit chip and the muon tagging system. A first measurement campaign has been carried out, and preliminary data show time-correlated events between the muon tagging detectors and the qubit readout. A quantitative analysis of radiation-induced effects on qubit performance is currently ongoing. This work represents a step toward the implementation of event-level radiation tagging as a tool for characterizing and potentially mitigating correlated errors in superconducting quantum processors, while establishing a modular platform for future studies at the interface between particle physics and quantum information science.

Roy, Tanay [Fermilab] (ORCID:000000019442862X)↗

Beam dynamics corrections to the Run-1 measurement of the muon anomaly $a_{\mu}$ at Fermilab

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) Muon $g\!-\!2$ Experiment has measured the positive muon magnetic anomaly $a_{\mu} \equiv (g_{\mu}-2)/2$ with a precision of 0.46 parts per million, with data collected during its first physics run in 2018. The experimental result combined with the measurement from the former experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory increases the tension with the Standard Model expectation to $4.2\sigma$, thus strengthening evidence for new physics.The magnetic anomaly is determined from the precision measurements of the muon spin precession frequency, relative to the muon momentum, and the average magnetic field seen by the beam. In an ideal case with muons orbiting in a horizontal plane with a uniform vertical magnetic field, the anomalous precession frequency $\omega_a$ is given by the difference between the spin ($s$) and cyclotron ($c$) frequencies, $\omega_a = \omega_s - \omega_c$. The observable $\omega_a$ is proportional to $a_{\mu}$.This proceeding presents the beam dynamics systematic corrections that are required to adjust the measured muon precession frequency $\omega^{m}_{a}$ to its true physical value $\omega_{a}$.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗