Identification and reconstruction of low-energy electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector

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Authors
DUNE Collaboration
Meyer, Holger
Muether, Mathew
Roy, P.
Solomey, Nickolas
Advisors
Issue Date
2023-05-30
Type
Article
Keywords
Electrons , Leptons , Muons , Neutrinos , Positrons
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Citation
DUNE Collaboration , Meyer, H., Muether, M., Roy, P., & Solomey, N. (2023). Identification and reconstruction of low-energy electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector. Physical Review D, 107(9).
Abstract

Measurements of electrons from ?e interactions are crucial for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) neutrino oscillation program, as well as searches for physics beyond the standard model, supernova neutrino detection, and solar neutrino measurements. This article describes the selection and reconstruction of low-energy (Michel) electrons in the ProtoDUNE-SP detector. ProtoDUNE-SP is one of the prototypes for the DUNE far detector, built and operated at CERN as a charged particle test beam experiment. A sample of low-energy electrons produced by the decay of cosmic muons is selected with a purity of 95%. This sample is used to calibrate the low-energy electron energy scale with two techniques. An electron energy calibration based on a cosmic ray muon sample uses calibration constants derived from measured and simulated cosmic ray muon events. Another calibration technique makes use of the theoretically well-understood Michel electron energy spectrum to convert reconstructed charge to electron energy. In addition, the effects of detector response to low-energy electron energy scale and its resolution including readout electronics threshold effects are quantified. Finally, the relation between the theoretical and reconstructed low-energy electron energy spectra is derived, and the energy resolution is characterized. The low-energy electron selection presented here accounts for about 75% of the total electron deposited energy. After the addition of lost energy using a Monte Carlo simulation, the energy resolution improves from about 40% to 25% at 50 MeV. These results are used to validate the expected capabilities of the DUNE far detector to reconstruct low-energy electrons.

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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Publisher
American Physical Society
Journal
Book Title
Series
Physical Review D
Volume 107, No. 9
PubMed ID
DOI
ISSN
1550-2368
EISSN