Characterization of the background for a neutrino search with the HAWC observatory

A. Albert, R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, J. R. Angeles Camacho, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, K. P. Arunbabu, E. Belmont-Moreno, K. S. Caballero-Mora, T. Capistrán, A. Carramiñana, S. Casanova, U. Cotti, J. Cotzomi, S. Coutiño de León, E. De la Fuente, R. Diaz Hernandez, M. A. DuVernois, M. Durocher, C. Espinoza, K. L. FanN. Fraija, D. Garcia, J. A. García-González, F. Garfias, M. M. González, J. A. Goodman, D. Huang, F. Hueyotl-Zahuantitla, P. Hüntemeyer, A. Iriarte, A. Jardin-Blicq, D. Kieda, A. Lara, W. H. Lee, H. León Vargas, A. L. Longinotti, G. Luis-Raya, K. Malone, J. Martínez-Castro, J. A. Matthews, P. Miranda-Romagnoli, J. A. Morales-Soto, E. Moreno, A. Nayerhoda, L. Nellen, R. Noriega-Papaqui, N. Omodei, A. Peisker, E. G. Pérez-Pérez, C. D. Rho, D. Rosa-González, A. Sandoval, J. Serna-Franco, R. W. Springer, K. Tollefson, I. Torres, R. Torres-Escobedo, F. Ureña-Mena, L. Villaseñor, H. Zhou, C. de León

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The close location of the HAWC observatory to the largest volcano in Mexico allows to perform a search for neutrino-induced horizontal muon and tau charged leptons. The section of the volcano located at the horizon reaches values of slant depth larger than 8 km of rock, making it an excellent shield for the cosmic ray horizontal background. We report the search method and background suppression technique developed for the detection of Earth-skimming neutrinos with HAWC, as well as a model that describes the remaining background produced by scattered muons. We show that by increasing the detection energy threshold we could use HAWC to search for neutrino-induced charged leptons.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102670
JournalAstroparticle Physics
Volume137
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2022

Keywords

  • Earth-skimming
  • Muons
  • Neutrinos

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