21-23 May 2025
Mexico/General timezone
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Contribution

Calibration studies at the Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills Experiment Using Cosmogenic Muons and Michel Electrons

Speakers

  • Mr. Cristian MACIAS

Primary authors

Co-authors

Content

The Coherent CAPTAIN-Mills (CCM) experiment is a 10-ton liquid argon detector located at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It is designed to study neutrino interactions, search for dark matter candidates, and explore physics beyond the Standard Model. Positioned 23 meters from the stopped pion source at the Lujan Facility, CCM is currently undergoing a three-year run cycle, during which it will receive $1.5\times 10^{22}$ protons on target (POT). The detector is instrumented with 200 eight-inch PMTs and 40 one-inch veto PMTs. Cosmogenic muons provide a valuable tool for calibrating the detector in the energy range of 100 to 600 MeV of deposited energy. Simulations of the cosmogenic flux offer important insights into the detector’s overall response. In addition, Michel electrons represent a significant background for studying interactions in the 10 to 60 MeV energy range. In this talk, I present progress toward developing a calibration method based on the predicted shape and rate of the muon energy spectrum at CCM. I also describe efforts to model the detector’s response in the energy range where Michel electrons become relevant, applying the same strategy used for cosmogenic muons. Finally, some prospects of the experiment's physics reach are also presented.