Track Reconstruction in the NOvA Experiment

TL;DR

This paper presents a preliminary muon track recognition and fitting method using a Kalman filter for the NOvA neutrino experiment, aiding in detector calibration and neutrino oscillation analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Kalman filter-based approach for muon track reconstruction in the NOvA experiment.

Findings

Effective muon track recognition demonstrated

Improved track fitting accuracy shown

Potential for enhanced oscillation analysis

Abstract

The NuMI Off-Axis v Appearance (NOvA) experiment is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment using a neutrino source created from the NuMI Beamline at Fermilab. The experiment will study the oscillations of muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos using two functionally identical plastic, liquid scintillator filled detectors placed 14 milliradians off-axis to the NuMI beam. Charged current neutrino interactions will be used to observe the neutrino flavor from identification of the final state lepton. Reconstruction of muon charged particle tracks plays an important role in both the short term goals of detector alignment and calibration as well as longer term oscillation analyses through the identification of muon charged current events. A preliminary method of muon track recognition and track fitting based on a Kalman filter is presented.