2023/08/23 by Nicholas Kamp, Kamp, Nicholas · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Computational Physics and Python Applications #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Particle Detector Development and Performance #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2308.12015
openalex publication_date 2023/08/23 · openalex created_date 2023/08/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This thesis covers a range of experimental and theoretical efforts to elucidate the origin of the 4.8σ MiniBooNE low energy excess (LEE). We begin with the follow-up MicroBooNE experiment, which took data along the BNB from 2016 to 2021. This thesis specifically presents MicroBooNE's search for νe charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) interactions consistent with two-body scattering. The two-body CCQE analysis uses a novel reconstruction process, including a number of deep-learning-based algorithms, to isolate a sample of νe CCQE interaction candidates with 75% purity. The analysis rules out an entirely νe-based explanation of the MiniBooNE excess at the 2.4σ confidence level. We next perform a combined fit of MicroBooNE and MiniBooNE data to the popular 3+1 model; even after the MicroBooNE results, allowed regions in Δm2-sin2 2_θμe parameter space exist at the 3σ confidence level. This thesis also demonstrates that the MicroBooNE data are consistent with a νe-based explanation of the MiniBooNE LEE at the <2σ confidence level. Next, we investigate a phenomenological explanation of the MiniBooNE excess combining the 3+1 model with a dipole-coupled heavy neutral lepton (HNL). It is shown that a 500 MeV HNL can accommodate the energy and angular distributions of the LEE at the 2σ confidence level while avoiding stringent constraints derived from MINERνA elastic scattering data. Finally, we discuss the Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills experiment--a 10-ton light-based liquid argon detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The background rejection achieved from a novel Cherenkov-based reconstruction algorithm will enable world-leading sensitivity to a number of beyond-the-Standard Model physics scenarios, including dipole-coupled HNLs.