A first look at data from the NO$\nu$A upward-going muon trigger

TL;DR

This paper presents the initial results from the NO$ u$A detector's upward-going muon trigger, highlighting its potential for exotic physics searches like dark matter detection amidst cosmic ray backgrounds.

Contribution

It reports the development and initial data analysis of the NO$ u$A upward-going muon trigger, a novel approach for cosmic ray background rejection in neutrino experiments.

Findings

First data from the upward-going muon trigger is analyzed.

The trigger demonstrates potential for dark matter searches.

Cosmic ray muon rate is approximately 100 kHz.

Abstract

The NO$\nu$A collaboration has constructed a 14,000 ton, fine-grained, low-Z, total absorption tracking calorimeter at an off-axis angle to an upgraded NuMI neutrino beam. This detector, with its excellent granularity and energy resolution and relatively low-energy neutrino thresholds, was designed to observe electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam, but it also has unique capabilities suitable for more exotic efforts. In fact, if sufficient cosmic ray background rejection can be demonstrated, NO$\nu$A will be capable of a competitive indirect dark matter search for low-mass Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The cosmic ray muon rate at the NO$\nu$A far detector is approximately 100 kHz and provides the primary challenge for triggering and optimizing such a search analysis. The status of the NO$\nu$A upward-going muon trigger and a first look at the triggered sample is presented.