Neutral-current background induced by atmospheric neutrinos at large liquid-scintillator detectors: I. model predictions

Abstract

The experimental searches for diffuse supernova neutrino background and proton decay in next-generation large liquid-scintillator (LS) detectors are competitive with and complementary to those in the water-Cherenkov detectors. In this paper, we carry out a systematic study of the dominant background induced by atmospheric neutrinos via their neutral-current (NC) interactions with the ${}^{12}\mathrm{C}$ nuclei in the LS detectors. The atmospheric neutrino fluxes at the location of Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) are used, as the JUNO detector is obviously a suitable representative for future LS detectors. Then, we implement the sophisticated generators \texttt{GENIE} and \texttt{NuWro} to simulate the neutrino interactions with the carbon nuclei, and the package \texttt{TALYS} to deal with the deexcitations of final-state nuclei. Finally, the event rates for the production of additional nucleons, $\gamma$'s, $\alpha$'s, pions and kaons are obtained and categorized, and the systematic uncertainty of the NC background represented by a variety of data-driven nuclear models is estimated. The implications of the NC background from atmospheric neutrinos for the detection of diffuse supernova neutrino background and proton decay are also discussed.

30 pages, 10 figures, more discussions, version to appear in PRD

References in corpus (12)

• Calculation of atmospheric neutrino flux using the interaction model calibrated with atmospheric muon data
• First Measurement of the Muon Neutrino Charged Current Quasielastic Double Differential Cross Section
• The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background is detectable in Super-Kamiokande
• Search for Proton Decay via $p\to e^{+}{\pi }^0$ and $p\to {\mu }^{+}{\pi }^0$ in 0.31 megaton$\cdot$years exposure of the Super-Kamiokande Water Cherenkov Detector
• Search for Proton Decay via $p\to \nu K^{+}$ using 260 kiloton$\cdot$year data of Super-Kamiokande
• Testing MeV dark matter with neutrino detectors
• Total neutrino and antineutrino nuclear cross sections around 1 GeV
• Construction of spectral functions for medium nuclei
• A Convolutional Neural Network for Multiple Particle Identification in the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber
• Detecting the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with LENA
• Neutral-current background induced by atmospheric neutrinos at large liquid-scintillator detectors: II. Methodology for in situ measurements

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Sub-percent Precision Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters with JUNO
• Prospects for Detecting the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO
• Potential to identify neutrino mass ordering with reactor antineutrinos at JUNO
• Neutral-current background induced by atmospheric neutrinos at large liquid-scintillator detectors: II. Methodology for in situ measurements
• Prospects for the detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with the experiments SK-Gd and JUNO
• Large Energy Singles at JUNO from Atmospheric Neutrinos and Dark Matter
• JUNO sensitivity to the annihilation of MeV dark matter in the galactic halo
• Nuclear deexcitation simulator for neutrino interactions and nucleon decays of ${}^{12}\text{C}$ and ${}^{16}\text{O}$ based on TALYS
• JUNO Physics and Detector
• Distinctive nuclear signatures of low-energy atmospheric neutrinos
• First Detailed Calculation of Atmospheric Neutrino Foregrounds to the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background in Super-Kamiokande
• New Signal of Atmospheric Tau Neutrino Appearance: Sub-GeV Neutral-Current Interactions in JUNO
• Neutral-current background induced by atmospheric neutrinos at large liquid-scintillator detectors: III. Comprehensive prediction for low energy neutrinos
• Simulating low-energy neutrino interactions with MARLEY
• Benchmarks and applications of the nuclear deexcitation event generator NucDeEx