Measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic cross section using atmospheric neutrinos in the SK-Gd experiment

Sakai, S.; Abe, K.; Bronner, C.; Hayato, Y.; Hiraide, K.; Hosokawa, K.; Ieki, K.; Ikeda, M.; Kameda, J.; Kanemura, Y.; Kaneshima, R.; Kashiwagi, Y.; Kataoka, Y.; Miki, S.; Mine, S.; Miura, M.; Moriyama, S.; Nakano, Y.; Nakahata, M.; Nakayama, S.; Noguchi, Y.; Sato, K.; Sekiya, H.; Shiba, H.; Shimizu, K.; Shiozawa, M.; Sonoda, Y.; Suzuki, Y.; Takeda, A.; Takemoto, Y.; Tanaka, H.; Yano, T.; Han, S.; Kajita, T.; Okumura, K.; Tashiro, T.; Tomiya, T.; Wang, X.; Yoshida, S.; Fernandez, P.; Labarga, L.; Ospina, N.; Zaldivar, B.; Pointon, B. W.; Kearns, E.; Raaf, J. L.; Wan, L.; Wester, T.; Bian, J.; Griskevich, N. J.; Locke, S.; Smy, M. B.; Sobel, H. W.; Takhistov, V.; Yankelevich, A.; Hill, J.; Jang, M. C.; Lee, S. H.; Moon, D. H.; Park, R. G.; Bodur, B.; Scholberg, K.; Walter, C. W.; Beauchene, A.; Drapier, O.; Giampaolo, A.; Mueller, T. A.; Santos, A. D.; Paganini, P.; Quilain, B.; Nakamura, T.; Jang, J. S.; Machado, L. N.; Learned, J. G.; Choi, K.; Iovine, N.; Cao, S.; Anthony, L. H. V.; Martin, D.; Prouse, N. W.; Scott, M.; Sztuc, A. A.; Uchida, Y.; Berardi, V.; Calabria, N. F.; Catanesi, M. G.; Radicioni, E.; Langella, A.; De Rosa, G.; Collazuol, G.; Iacob, F.; Mattiazzi, M.; Ludovici, L.; Gonin, M.; Pronost, G.; Fujisawa, C.; Maekawa, Y.; Nishimura, Y.; Okazaki, R.; Akutsu, R.; Friend, M.; Hasegawa, T.; Ishida, T.; Kobayashi, T.; Jakkapu, M.; Matsubara, T.; Nakadaira, T.; Nakamura, K.; Oyama, Y.; Sakashita, K.; Sekiguchi, T.; Tsukamoto, T.; Bhuiyan, N.; Burton, G. T.; Di Lodovico, F.; Gao, J.; Goldsack, A.; Katori, T.; Migenda, J.; Ramsden, R. M.; Xie, Z.; Zsoldos, S.; Suzuki, A. T.; Takagi, Y.; Zhong, H.; Takeuchi, Y.; Feng, J.; Feng, L.; J. R., Hu; Hu, Z.; Kawaue, M.; Kikawa, T.; Mori, M.; Nakaya, T.; Wendell, R. A.; Yasutome, K.; Jenkins, S. J.; Mccauley, N.; Mehta, P.; Tarant, A.; Fukuda, Y.; Itow, Y.; Menjo, H.; Ninomiya, K.; Yoshioka, Y.; Lagoda, J.; Lakshmi, S. M.; Mandal, M.; Mijakowski, P.; Prabhu, Y. S.; Zalipska, J.; Jia, M.; Jiang, J.; Jung, C. K.; Shi, W.; Wilking, M. J.; Yanagisawa, C.; Harada, M.; Hino, Y.; Ishino, H.; Koshio, Y.; Nakanishi, F.; Tada, T.; Tano, T.; Ishizuka, T.; Barr, G.; Barrow, D.; Cook, L.; Samani, S.; Wark, D.; Holin, A.; Nova, F.; Jung, S.; Yang, B. S.; Yang, J. Y.; Yoo, J.; Fannon, J. E. P.; Kneale, L.; Malek, M.; Mcelwee, J. M.; Thiesse, M. D.; Thompson, L. F.; Wilson, S. T.; Okazawa, H.; Kim, S. B.; Kwon, E.; Seo, J. W.; Yu, I.; Ichikawa, A. K.; Nakamura, K. D.; Tairafune, S.; Nishijima, K.; Eguchi, A.; Nakagiri, K.; Nakajima, Y.; Shima, S.; Taniuchi, N.; Watanabe, E.; Yokoyama, M.; De Perio, P.; Fujita, S.; Martens, K.; Tsui, K. M.; Vagins, M. R.; Xia, J.; Izumiyama, S.; Kuze, M.; Matsumoto, R.; Ishitsuka, M.; Ito, H.; Ommura, Y.; Shigeta, N.; Shinoki, M.; Yamauchi, K.; Yoshida, T.; Gaur, R.; Gousy-Leblanc, V.; Hartz, M.; Konaka, A.; Li, X.; Chen, S.; B. D., Xu; Zhang, B.; Posiadala-Zezula, M.; Boyd, S. B.; Edwards, R.; Hadley, D.; Nicholson, M.; O'Flaherty, M.; Richards, B.; Ali, A.; Jamieson, B.; Amanai, S.; Marti, L.; Minamino, A.; Suzuki, S.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.109.L011101

We report the first measurement of the atmospheric neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic (NCQE) cross section in the gadolinium-loaded Super-Kamiokande (SK) water Cherenkov detector. In June 2020, SK began a new experimental phase, named SK-Gd, by loading 0.011% by mass of gadolinium into the ultrapure water of the SK detector. The introduction of gadolinium to ultrapure water has the effect of improving the neutron-tagging efficiency. Using a 552.2 day dataset from August 2020 to June 2022, we measure the NCQE cross section to be 0.74±0.22(stat)-0.15+0.85(syst)×10-38 cm2/oxygen in the energy range from 160 MeV to 10 GeV, which is consistent with the atmospheric neutrino-flux-averaged theoretical NCQE cross section and the measurement in the SK pure-water phase within the uncertainties. Furthermore, we compare the models of the nucleon-nucleus interactions in water and find that the binary cascade model and the Liège intranuclear cascade model provide a somewhat better fit to the observed data than the Bertini cascade model. Since the atmospheric neutrino-oxygen NCQE reactions are one of the main backgrounds in the search for diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB), these new results will contribute to future studies - and the potential discovery - of the DSNB in SK.

Measurement of the neutrino-oxygen neutral-current quasielastic cross section using atmospheric neutrinos in the SK-Gd experiment / Sakai, S., Abe, K., Bronner, C., Hayato, Y., Hiraide, K., Hosokawa, K., Ieki, K., Ikeda, M., Kameda, J., Kanemura, Y., Kaneshima, R., Kashiwagi, Y., Kataoka, Y., Miki, S., Mine, S., Miura, M., Moriyama, S., Nakano, Y., Nakahata, M., Nakayama, S., et al.. - In: PHYSICAL REVIEW D. - ISSN 2470-0010. - ELETTRONICO. - 109:1(2024). [10.1103/PhysRevD.109.L011101]