21–26 Jun 2026
University of California, Irvine
US/Pacific timezone

Constraining Atmospheric NCQE Backgrounds for Super-Kamiokande DSNB Searches using T2K Data

Not scheduled
20m
Conference Center (University of California, Irvine)

Conference Center

University of California, Irvine

Poster Accelerator Neutrinos Poster session

Speaker

Licheng FENG (Kyoto University)

Description

Atmospheric Neutral Current Quasi-Elastic (NCQE) interactions are a dominant background for the Super-Kamiokande Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB) search. The large uncertainty in Atmospheric NCQE interactions is a key bottleneck limiting DSNB sensitivity. We use NCQE events from the T2K neutrino beam to constrain this uncertainty and to validate selection cuts. We analyzed the impact of \nu-16O NCQE gamma predictions on Cherenkov-ring observables to evaluate signal-background separation strategies, including a neural-network-based method. Using T2K data, we constrain the total atmospheric NCQE uncertainty to ~40%.

Author

Licheng FENG (Kyoto University)

Presentation materials