Neutron detection and application with a novel 3D-projection scintillator tracker in the future long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.107.032012
• Publication Date: 2023-02-27T16:44:13Z
• Authors: S. Gwon; P. Granger; G. Yang; S. Bolognesi; T. Cai; M. Danilov; A. Delbart; A. De Roeck; S. Dolan; G. Eurin; R. F. Razakamiandra; S. Fedotov; G. Fiorentini Agu...; R. Flight; R. Gran; C. Ha; C. K. Jung; K. Y. Jung; S. Kettell; M. Khabibullin; A. Khotjantsev; M. Kordosky; Y. Kudenko; T. Kutter; J. Maneira; S. Manly; D. A. Martinez Ca...; C. Mauger; K. McFarland; C. McGrew; A. Mefodev; O. Mineev; D. Naples; A. Olivier; V. Paolone; S. Prasad; C. Riccio; J. Rodriguez Rondon; D. Sgalaberna; A. Sitraka; K. Siyeon; N. Skrobova; H. Su; S. Suvorov; A. Teklu; M. Tzanov; E. Valencia; K. Wood; E. Worcester; N. Yershov
• Keywords: Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors; kinetic; interaction; FOS: Physical sciences; n; final state; meson; time-of-flight; Atomic; 7. Clean energy; charged current; High Energy Physics - Experiment; neutrino; High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex); 03 medical and health sciences; Particle and Plasma Physics; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph); 0302 clinical medicine; Affordable and Clean Energy; optical; [PHYS.HEXP]Physics [physics]/High Energy Physics - Experiment [hep-ex]; Nuclear; tracking detector; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-INS-DET]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det]; scintillation counter; Quantum Physics; Molecular; Particle and High Energy Physics; Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det); oscillation; Nuclear and Plasma Physics; Nuclear & Particles Physics; current; Synchrotrons and Accelerators; flux; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; Particle and high energy physics; kinematics; Mathematical physics; [PHYS.HPHE]Physics [physics]/High Energy Physics - Phenomenology [hep-ph]; Physical Sciences; Astronomical sciences; Astronomical and Space Sciences; energy

Neutrino oscillation experiments require a precise measurement of the neutrino energy. However, the kinematic detection of the final-state neutron in the neutrino interaction is missing in current neutrino oscillation experiments. The missing neutron kinematic detection results in a feed-down of the detected neutrino energy compared to the true neutrino energy. A novel 3D\textcolor{black}{-}projection scintillator tracker, which consists of roughly ten million active cubes covered with an optical reflector, is capable of measuring the neutron kinetic energy and direction on an event-by-event basis using the time-of-flight technique thanks to the fast timing, fine granularity, and high light yield. The $\barν_μ$ interactions tend to produce neutrons in the final state. By inferring the neutron kinetic energy, the $\barν_μ$ energy can be reconstructed better, allowing a tighter incoming neutrino flux constraint. This paper shows the detector's ability to reconstruct neutron kinetic energy and the $\barν_μ$ flux constraint achieved by selecting the charged-current interactions without mesons or protons in the final state.