WIDG Seminar: Supraja Balasubramanian, Yale, “Neutral Pions in MicroBooNE: an Electromagnetic Story”

Event time: 
Saturday, May 18, 2019 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location: 
Wright Lab (WNSL), 216 See map
272 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
Event description: 

MicroBooNE is an 85-ton active mass liquid argon time projection chamber located on the Booster Neutrino Beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The primary goal of MicroBooNE is to investigate the excess of low-energy electromagnetic events observed by the MiniBooNE experiment, and determine whether they are photon-like or electron-like. Situated on a muon neutrino beamline with a mean neutrino energy of 800 MeV, the MicroBooNE detector also provides the opportunity to study neutrino-Argon scattering cross-sections in order to probe neutrino-nucleus interactions. In this talk, I present an overview of the MicroBooNE experiment, its technology and physics goals. Particular focus will be placed on neutral pions in liquid argon TPC’s, and the selection and reconstruction of electromagnetic final states, as these measurements are crucial in resolving the electron or photon-like nature of the MiniBooNE result.