Measurement of Space Charge Effects in the MicroBooNE LArTPC Using Cosmic Muons

Abstract

Large liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs), especially those operating near the surface, are susceptible to space charge effects. In the context of LArTPCs, the space charge effect is the build-up of slow-moving positive ions in the detector primarily due to ionization from cosmic rays, leading to a distortion of the electric field within the detector. This effect leads to a displacement in the reconstructed position of signal ionization electrons in LArTPC detectors ("spatial distortions"), as well as to variations in the amount of electron-ion recombination experienced by ionization throughout the volume of the TPC. We present techniques that can be used to measure and correct for space charge effects in large LArTPCs by making use of cosmic muons, including the use of track pairs to unambiguously pin down spatial distortions in three dimensions. The performance of these calibration techniques are studied using both Monte Carlo simulation and MicroBooNE data, utilizing a UV laser system as a means to estimate the systematic bias associated with the calibration methodology.

arXiv comment38 pages, 25 figures

References in corpus (10)

• Design and Construction of the MicroBooNE Detector
• Ionization Electron Signal Processing in Single Phase LArTPCs II. Data/Simulation Comparison and Performance in MicroBooNE
• A study of electron recombination using highly ionizing particles in the ArgoNeuT Liquid Argon TPC
• Noise Characterization and Filtering in the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon TPC
• Ionization Electron Signal Processing in Single Phase LArTPCs I. Algorithm Description and Quantitative Evaluation with MicroBooNE Simulation
• Calibration of the charge and energy loss per unit length of the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber using muons and protons
• A Method to Determine the Electric Field of Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers Using a UV Laser System and its Application in MicroBooNE
• Observation of muon intensity variations by season with the MINOS Near Detector
• The Photomultiplier Tube Calibration System of the MicroBooNE Experiment
• A steerable UV laser system for the calibration of liquid argon time projection chambers

Cited by in corpus (30)

• Search for a Higgs portal scalar decaying to electron-positron pairs in the MicroBooNE detector
• First constraints on light sterile neutrino oscillations from combined appearance and disappearance searches with the MicroBooNE detector
• Semantic Segmentation with a Sparse Convolutional Neural Network for Event Reconstruction in MicroBooNE
• Novel Approach for Evaluating Detector-Related Uncertainties in a LArTPC Using MicroBooNE Data
• First Measurement of Energy-Dependent Inclusive Muon Neutrino Charged-Current Cross Sections on Argon with the MicroBooNE Detector
• Search for Neutrino-Induced Neutral Current $\Delta$ Radiative Decay in MicroBooNE and a First Test of the MiniBooNE Low Energy Excess Under a Single-Photon Hypothesis
• A Convolutional Neural Network for Multiple Particle Identification in the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber
• High-performance Generic Neutrino Detection in a LArTPC near the Earth's Surface with the MicroBooNE Detector
• Cosmic Ray Background Rejection with Wire-Cell LArTPC Event Reconstruction in the MicroBooNE Detector
• Wire-Cell 3D Pattern Recognition Techniques for Neutrino Event Reconstruction in Large LArTPCs: Algorithm Description and Quantitative Evaluation with MicroBooNE Simulation
• First Measurement of Inclusive Electron-Neutrino and Antineutrino Charged Current Differential Cross Sections in Charged Lepton Energy on Argon in MicroBooNE
• Inclusive cross section measurements in final states with and without protons for charged-current ${\nu }_{\mu }$-Ar scattering in MicroBooNE
• The science and technology of liquid argon detectors
• Measurement of ambient radon progeny decay rates and energy spectra in liquid argon using the MicroBooNE detector
• Demonstration of new MeV-scale capabilities in large neutrino LArTPCs using ambient radiogenic and cosmogenic activity in MicroBooNE
• Search for Light Sterile Neutrinos With Two Neutrino Beams at MicroBooNE
• Measurement of the Atmospheric Muon Rate with the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon TPC
• Demonstration of neutron identification in neutrino interactions in the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber
• Observation of Radon Mitigation in MicroBooNE by a Liquid Argon Filtration System
• First measurement of ${\nu }_e$ + ${\bar{\nu }}_e$ charged current single charged pion production differential cross sections on argon using the MicroBooNE detector
• Space Charge Effects in Noble Liquid Calorimeters and Time Projection Chambers
• Effect of Diffusion on the Peak Value of Energy Loss Observed in a LArTPC
• First measurement of $\eta$ production in neutrino interactions on argon with MicroBooNE
• Measurement of charged-current muon neutrino-argon interactions without pions in the final state using the MicroBooNE detector
• Measurement of single charged pion production in charged-current ${\nu }_{\mu }$-Ar interactions with the MicroBooNE detector
• Measurement of the Longitudinal Diffusion of Ionization Electrons in the MicroBooNE Detector
• Neutrino Event Selection in the MicroBooNE Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber using Wire-Cell 3-D Imaging, Clustering, and Charge-Light Matching
• Measurement of the Flux-Averaged Inclusive Charged-Current Electron Neutrino and Antineutrino Cross Section on Argon using the NuMI Beam and the MicroBooNE Detector
• Measurement of the differential cross section for neutral pion production in charged-current muon neutrino interactions on argon with the MicroBooNE detector
• Calibration of calorimetric measurement in a liquid argon time projection chamber