SciPost Submission Page
A data-driven method to estimate the antiproton background in Mu2e
by Namitha Chithirasreemadam, Simone Donati, Pavel Murat
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Namitha Chithirasreemadam |
| Submission information | |
|---|---|
| Preprint Link: | scipost_202406_00038v1 (pdf) |
| Date accepted: | 2024-12-19 |
| Date submitted: | 2024-06-18 20:00 |
| Submitted by: | Chithirasreemadam, Namitha |
| Submitted to: | SciPost Physics Proceedings |
| Proceedings issue: | 17th International Workshop on Tau Lepton Physics (TAU2023) |
| Ontological classification | |
|---|---|
| Academic field: | Physics |
| Specialties: |
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| Approach: | Experimental |
Abstract
The Mu2e experiment will search for the CLFV process of neutrinoless, coherent conversion of muon to electron in the field of an Al nucleus. One of the expected backgrounds is antiprotons produced by the proton beam at the Production Target and annihilating in the Stopping Target to produce signal-like electrons. Although not a dominant back- ground, it has a large uncertainty and cannot be suppressed by the timing cuts used to reduce the prompt background. However, at Mu2e energies, ppbar annihilation is the only source of events with multiple, simultaneous particles coming from the Stopping Target. We utilised this unique feature and developed a novel approach to reconstruct multi-track events and estimate the antiproton background.
Current status:
Editorial decision:
For Journal SciPost Physics Proceedings: Publish
(status: Editorial decision fixed and (if required) accepted by authors)
Reports on this Submission
Report #1 by Swagato Banerjee (Referee 1) on 2024-12-3 (Invited Report)
Report
A notable challenge at the Mu2e experiment is the background noise from antiproton annihilation, which produces signal-like electrons and cannot be mitigated by standard timing cuts. A novel, data-driven reconstruction approach exploits the unique multi-track signatures of these annihilation events, significantly enhancing detection efficiency. While contributions from decay-in-orbit electrons and cosmic rays to these multi-track signals are shown to be negligible, systematic improvements are obtained including clustering algorithms that better separate particle trajectories, and doubling the number of reconstructed multi-track events compared to earlier methods.
Recommendation
Publish (surpasses expectations and criteria for this Journal; among top 10%)