VIRTUAL

 

Thursday, November 4th    2021

3:45 – 4:45 pm (MT)

WEBEX

 

Speaker:  Mark Ross-Lonergan

Department of Physics

Columbia University

 

 

“First results from MicroBooNE on the long-standing anomalous MiniBooNE excess”

 

 

Abstract: 

The MiniBooNE anomaly has puzzled the neutrino community for over a decade, with unexplained results showing a large excess of electron-like interactions. A wide range of possible explanations have been put forward, from the existence of a new `sterile' neutrino to underestimated or novel photon backgrounds. In this colloquium I will present the first results from MicroBooNE, an experiment whose flagship goal is to investigate the nature of this low-energy excess. By taking advantage of the power of liquid argon time projection chamber detector technology, MicroBooNE has amassed the largest sample of neutrino-argon interactions in the world and has achieved a level of detail never before seen in the neutrino sector. Our first results encompass three independent analyses focusing on measuring electron-neutrino interactions and a fourth targeting the possibility of a photon-like background being the culprit. I will introduce MicroBooNE and these new exciting results, and discuss what they mean for the various interpretations of the MiniBooNE excess.