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Beyond the Standard Model physics prospects at DUNE

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international project for neutrino physics and proton-decay searches, currently in the design and construction stages. Once built, DUNE will consist of two detectors exposed to the world's most intense neutrino beam. The near detector will record neutrino interactions near the beginning of the beamline, at Fermilab. The other, much larger, detector, comprising four 17-kton liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs), will be installed at a depth of 1.5 km at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, about 1300 km away from the neutrino source.The unique combination of the high-intensity neutrino beam with DUNE's high-resolution near detector system and massive LArTPC far detector enables a variety of probes of BSM physics, either novel or with unprecedented sensitivity, from the potential discovery of new particles (sterile neutrinos or dark matter), to precision tests of the three-flavour neutrino mixing paradigm, or the detailed study of rare processes.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A LArTPC with Vertical Drift for the DUNE Far Detector

The Far Detector of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be a large LArdetector located at a baseline of 1300 kilometers, 1.5 km deep underground. It is planned to bemade up of four modules, each with a total mass of 17 kt of LAr, at least the first two of which willconsist in Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers (LArTPCs). To prove the feasibility of theLArTPC technology at the kiloton scale, the ProtoDUNE Single and Dual-Phase detectors wereconstructed and operated at the CERN Neutrino facility.This document describes the Vertical Drift detector concept, which is proposed to instrument thesecond DUNE module. It consists of a TPC where the electrons drift vertically, with a cathodesuspended at mid-height, towards anodes placed at the bottom and top of the detector. The anodeswould be made out of printed PCBs instead of wires, and the new disposition would allow the topreadout electronics to be accessible during the lifetime of the experiment. An enhanced photo-detection system is also proposed, with the photo-sensors placed on the cryostat walls and thecathode, but posing a challenge in terms of power and signal transmission. Studies are ongoingboth to overcome the technical challenges of this new design and to finalize the concept.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

A Novel Hit-Based Method to Distinguish Tracks and Showers in ProtoDUNE Single Phase

Pandora is a pattern recognition software used in liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) experiments such as MicroBooNE, DUNE, SBND, ICARUS, and ProtoDUNE Single Phase (SP). The output of a LArTPC can be considered a high-resolution 2D image and energy depositions, called hits, from particles in a LArTPC create complicated topologies that are broadly classified into tracks and showers. The event reconstruction is particularly challenging when there are multiple overlapping particles and in order to fully harness the imaging capabilities of thoseexperiments, Pandora needs to separate them. A hit-based approach to this problem is presented, which analyses small regions around each hit in events from DUNE Far Detector (FD) and from those regions it calculates local variables that are used subsequently in a machine learning approach. After this stage, it is given to each hit a probability to belong to a track or shower-like particle. Results will show the performance of separation between tracks and showers. This method is planned to be used for ProtoDUNE SP.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

The DUNE Photon Detection System

DUNE is an underground neutrino oscillation experiment that will be performing precision measurements of the PMNS matrix to determine unambiguously the mass ordering and the leptonic CP violation. It also comprises a rich non-accelerator physics program for the detection of supernova neutrinos, nucleon decay, and BSM physics. DUNE employs a high-power neutrino beam under construction at Fermilab together with the DUNE Near Detector, and four liquid argon TPCs (Far Detector) that will be installed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, 1300 km away from the neutrino source. The photon detection system (PDS) – which records the 128 nm scintillation light of argon and provides the time of interaction of the beam neutrinos in the Far Detector - is critical for studying nucleon decay and detecting Supernova Neutrino Bursts. The PDS also complements the calorimetric measurement performed by the TPC (i.e. the charge readout) and contributes to the energy calibration and time performance of the Far Detector. The article is an overview of the design of the PDS for the first DUNE far detector module, with special emphasis on VUV light trapping in a cryogenic environment, its technical challenges, and the expected physics performance. The status of the construction of the PDS and its validation in the Run II of ProtoDUNE-SP will be also presented.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Measurement of Neutral Current Elastic Cross Section in MicroBooNE

The MicroBooNE experiment is an 85 ton active volume liquid-argon time projection chamber located in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beamline. MicroBooNE’s ability to detect low-energy protons allows us to study single proton events with a four-momentum transfer squared, Q$^2$, as low as 0.10 GeV$^2$. We present a measurement of the flux-averaged neutral-current elastic differential cross sections for neutrinos scattering on argon as a function of Q$^2$, proton momentum and proton angle with respect to the direction of the neutrino beam. This is our first step towards extracting the strange quark contribution to the axial form factor, which is not only the least-constrained contribution to the neutral-current elastic scattering cross section but is also crucial for understanding the strange quark contribution to the proton spin.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DUNE experiment physics

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will feature a 40-kton liquid argon TPC detector situated a mile below the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. A new broadband high-intensity neutrino source and Near Detector complex will be located at Fermilab, 1300 kilometers away. This arrangement will provide unprecedented sensitivity in the search for neutrino CP violation, determination of the neutrino mass ordering, and precision measurements of neutrino mixing parameters. The underground Far Detector also allows for low background, low threshold observations of supernova neutrinos, with a unique sensitivity to the electron neutrino flux. Further, DUNE will conduct a wide range of searches for physics beyond the Standard Model, including baryon number violation, rare scattering processes, and non-standard flavor transitions. In this poster, we review DUNE's extensive physics program and show updated sensitivities.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

SAND - System for on-Axis Neutrino Detection - in the DUNE Near Detector Complex

The DUNE experiment aims to precisely measure the long baseline neutrino oscillation parameters. The DUNE Far Detector consists of four liquid argon time-projection chambers (total LAr mass of 17 kton for each cryostat), that will be installed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota, 1300 km from the proton beam target. The Near Detector complex, located at Fermilab, is fundamental for limiting the systematic uncertainties, due to the neutrino/antineutrino flux and to the cross-section. It comprises three complementary detectors: ND-Lar, ND-Gar and SAND (System for on-Axis Neutrino Detection). ND-Lar and ND-Gar can move off-axis, while SAND is the only detector permanently on-axis, whose primary goal is to monitor the beam and to measure the flux. In this talk, the SAND design and the expected performances will be described together with its role within the Near Detector complex for the DUNE physics program.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

The DUNE Near Detector

DUNE is a next-generation experiment aiming to provide precision measurements of neutrino oscillation parameters. It will detect neutrinos produced in the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility beamline at Fermilab, using a Near Detector situated near the beam target where the neutrinos originate and a Far Detector located 1300 km away in South Dakota. A comparison of the spectra of neutrinos measured at the Far and the Near Detector will allow for the extraction of oscillation probabilities from which the oscillation parameters can be inferred. The specific role of the Near Detector is to serve as the experiment’s control: it will establish the no oscillation null hypothesis, measure and monitor the beam, constrain systematic uncertainties, and provide essential measurements of the neutrino interactions to improve models. The Near Detector complex will include three primary detector components: a liquid argon time projection chamber, a high-pressure gas time projection chamber and an on-axis beam monitor. The three detectors will serve important individual and overlapping functions, with two of them being also able to move transverse to the beam’s axis via the DUNE-PRISM program. The overall mission of the Near Detector, as well as the three sub-detectors’ unique capabilities and physics programs will be discussed in these proceedings.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Recent MicroBooNE cross-section results: neutrino-induced baryon production

The MicroBooNE detector is a liquid argon time projection chamber based at Fermilab that sits on-axis of the Fermilab’s Booster Neutrino Beam and off-axis of Fermilab’s NuMI beam.MicroBooNE has investigated the MiniBooNE anomaly using the BNB and published a wide array of inclusive and exclusive neutrino-argon cross section results using both neutrino beams. These proceedings highlight recent public results from MicroBooNE on cross sections involving charged baryons in the final state without mesons. These results have been compared to various event generator simulations with agreement observed between the data and predictions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The role of ProtoDUNE-SP in future oscillation physics

Long-baseline oscillation experiments are entering a new phase where neutrino beams can provide ultra-high fuxes over long distances. These beams will lead to an era of high statistics in large neutrino detectors, creating new systematic uncertainty-limited analyses. The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) plans a high fux beam to travel 1300 km to 10-kT liquid argon detector modules. While neither the near detector nor the far detector has been constructed, prototypes of the DUNE Far Detector have been built and operated at CERN. One prototype, ProtoDUNE Single-Phase, is a full-scale mockup of the first 10-kT DUNE Far Detector module and can inform DUNE on detector performance and particle passage in argon. The proceedings discuss some published and in-progress results from ProtoDUNE-SP and how these results can impact current sensitivity studies and future analyses.

Diurba, Richard↗

The DUNE Experiment

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a next generation long-baseline neutrino experiment built to answer some of the most fundamental questions in the universe. DUNE will consist of two neutrino detectors placed in the world’s most intense neutrino beam facility named as Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF). It consists of a near detector and a far detector that is comprised initially of two modules and eventually of four modules, each of fiducial mass 17.5 ktons of liquid Argon. The far detector is located 1300 km from the beam source placed underground at the Sanford Underground Research Laboratory in Lead, South Dakota. DUNE will measure the un-oscillated neutrinos nucleus interactions at near detector and oscillated interactions at far detector which will be able to address the questions about the preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, searches for leptonic charge-parity symmetry violation, proton decay, supernova neutrino bursts and unification of forces. This article discussed the goals and physics of the DUNE experiment.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Program

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is a next-generation long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment aimed at determining the neutrino mass hierarchy and the CP-violating phase. The DUNE physics program also includes the detection of astrophysical neutrinos and the search for signatures beyond the Standard Model, such as nucleon decays. DUNE consists of a near detector complex located at Fermilab and four 17 kton Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) far detector modules to be built 1.5 km underground at SURF, approximately 1300 km away. The detectors are exposed to a wideband neutrino beam generated by a 1.2 MW proton beam with a planned upgrade to $>$ 2 MW. Two 770 ton LArTPCs (ProtoDUNEs) have been operated at CERN for over 2 years as a testbed for DUNE far detectors and have been optimized to take new cosmic and test-beam data in 2024-2025. The DUNE and ProtoDUNE experiments and physics goals, as well as recent progress and results, are presented.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

The MicroBooNE Experiment and the Low-Energy Excess

MicroBooNE is the first phase of Fermilab’s Short Baseline Neutrino (SBN) Liquid Argon Time ProjectionChamber (LArTPC) programme. It aims to improve the understanding of the observed excess of low-energy electromagnetic events at MiniBooNE. The current status of the low-energy excess search in MicroBooNE is presented.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Gamma Ray Source Localization for Time Projection Chamber Telescopes Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Diverse phenomena such as positron annihilation in the Milky Way, merging binary neutron stars, and dark matter can be better understood by studying their gamma ray emission. Despite their importance, MeV gamma rays have been poorly explored at sensitivities that would allow for deeper insight into the nature of the gamma emitting objects. In response, a liquid argon time projection chamber (TPC) gamma ray instrument concept called GammaTPC has been proposed and promises exploration of the entire sky with a large field of view, large effective area, and high polarization sensitivity. Optimizing the pointing capability of this instrument is crucial and can be accomplished by leveraging convolutional neural networks to reconstruct electron recoil paths from Compton scattering events within the detector. In this investigation, we develop a machine learning model architecture to accommodate a large data set of high fidelity simulated electron tracks and reconstruct paths. We create two model architectures: one to predict the electron recoil track origin and one for the initial scattering direction. We find that these models predict the true origin and direction with extremely high accuracy, thereby optimizing the observatory’s estimates of the sky location of gamma ray sources.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Photon Detection System for DUNE Low-Energy Physics Study and the Demonstration of a Timing Resolution of a Few Nanoseconds Using ProtoDUNE-SP PDS

Photon detection systems (PDS) are an integral part of liquid-argon neutrino detectors. Besides providing the timing information for an event, which is necessary for reconstructing the drift coordinates of ionizing particle tracks, photon detectors can be effectively used for other purposes, including triggering events, background rejection, and calorimetric energy estimation. PDS in particular for the DUNE Far Detector Module 2 is designed to achieve a more extended optical coverage (→4 ) with new-generation large-size PD modules based on the ARAPUCA technology. This will provide enhanced opportunities for the study of low-energy neutrino physics using PDS. The ARAPUCA technology was extensively tested within the ProtoDUNE-SP detector operated at the CERN neutrino platform. Here, we present a study of the timing resolution of ARAPUCA detectors using light emitted from a sample of energetic cosmic ray muons traveling parallel to the PDS. An intrinsic timing resolution in the order of 3 ns is observed for the ARAPUCA detectors. The excellent timing resolution ability of PDS can be exploited for further enhancing physics studies using the DUNE far detectors.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Beyond the Standard Model New Physics Searches with SBND

SBND (Short-Baseline Near Detector) is a 112-ton liquid argon time projection chamber located on the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and is the near detector of the Short-Baseline Neutrino program. The primary goals of SBND are to provide flux constraints for sterile neutrino searches, conduct world-leading neutrino cross-section measurements on argon, and perform Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) new physics searches with its high-precision particle identification capabilities. SBND’s prospects and tools for detecting a variety of BSM phenomena produced in a neutrino beam, such as sub-GeV dark matter, dark neutrinos, heavy neutral leptons and millicharged particles, are discussed.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

First Search for Neutral Current Coherent Single-Photon Production in MicroBooNE

This article presents the first search for neutrino-induced neutral current coherent single-photon production (NC coherent 1$\gamma$). The search makes use of data from the MicroBooNE 85-tonne active volume liquid argon time projection chamber detector, situated in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB), with an average neutrino energy of $\langle E_{\nu}\rangle \sim 0.8$ GeV. A targeted selection of candidate neutrino interactions with a single photon-like electromagnetic shower in the final state and no visible vertex activity was developed to search for the NC coherent 1$\gamma$ process, along with two auxiliary selections used to constrain the dominant background from NC$\pi^0$ production. With an integrated exposure of $6.87 \times 10^{20}$ protons on target delivered by the BNB, we set the world's first limit for this rare process, corresponding to an upper limit on the flux-averaged cross section of $\sigma<1.49 \times 10^{-41}\text{cm}^2$ at 90% C.L.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

European Contributions to Fermilab Accelerator Upgrades and Facilities for the DUNE Experiment

The Proton Improvement Plan (PIP-II) to the FNAL accelerator chain and the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) will provide the world's most intense neutrino beam to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) enabling a wide-ranging physics program. This document outlines the significant contributions made by European national laboratories and institutes towards realizing the first phase of the project with a 1.2 MW neutrino beam. Construction of this first phase is well underway. For DUNE Phase II, this will be closely followed by an upgrade of the beam power to > 2 MW, for which the European groups again have a key role and which will require the continued support of the European community for machine aspects of neutrino physics. Beyond the neutrino beam aspects, LBNF is also responsible for providing unique infrastructure to install and operate the DUNE neutrino detectors at FNAL and at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). The cryostats for the first two Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber detector modules at SURF, a contribution of CERN to LBNF, are central to the success of the ongoing execution of DUNE Phase I. Likewise, successful and timely procurement of cryostats for two additional detector modules at SURF will be critical to the success of DUNE Phase II and the overall physics program. The DUNE Collaboration is submitting four main contributions to the 2026 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics process. This paper is being submitted to the 'Accelerator technologies' and 'Projects and Large Experiments' streams. Additional inputs related to the DUNE science program, DUNE detector technologies and R&D, and DUNE software and computing, are also being submitted to other streams.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗