Scintillation light calibrations, systematic uncertainties, and triggering efficiency in the MicroBooNE detector
Abstract
Scintillation light, produced alongside ionisation charge from particle interactions, plays a critical role in liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) detectors. A detailed understanding of its production and detection mechanisms is essential for robust calibration, systematic uncertainty evaluation, and physics analysis. This article describes the MicroBooNE light simulation, light-based triggering schemes, photomultiplier tube gain calibration, light response stability, and light-based systematic uncertainties over the course of five years of data collection. In addition, we present a measurement of scintillation light triggering efficiency, focusing on the lowest-light regime relevant to rare-event searches and low-energy neutrino interactions. Finally, we discuss two notable observations in MicroBooNE's data, both reported here for the first time: an approximately 50% decline in MicroBooNE's light yield over time, concentrated in the first two years of running; and a higher than expected O(200 kHz) rate of single photoelectron noise. The results presented provide an important benchmark of long-term light detection performance in LArTPC neutrino detectors.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.23691,
title = {Scintillation light calibrations, systematic uncertainties, and triggering efficiency in the MicroBooNE detector},
author = {MicroBooNE collaboration and P. Abratenko and D. Andrade Aldana and L. Arellano and J. Asaadi and A. Ashkenazi and S. Balasubramanian and B. Baller and A. Barnard and G. Barr and D. Barrow and J. Barrow and V. Basque and J. Bateman and B. Behera and O. Benevides Rodrigues and S. Berkman and A. Bhat and M. Bhattacharya and V. Bhelande and A. Binau and M. Bishai and A. Blake and B. Bogart and T. Bolton and M. B. Brunetti and L. Camilleri and D. Caratelli and F. Cavanna and G. Cerati and A. Chappell and Y. Chen and J. M. Conrad and M. Convery and L. Cooper-Troendle and J. I. Crespo-Anadon and R. Cross and M. Del Tutto and S. R. Dennis and P. Detje and R. Diurba and Z. Djurcic and K. Duffy and S. Dytman and B. Eberly and P. Englezos and A. Ereditato and J. J. Evans and C. Fang and B. T. Fleming and W. Foreman and D. Franco and A. P. Furmanski and F. Gao and D. Garcia-Gamez and S. Gardiner and G. Ge and S. Gollapinni and E. Gramellini and P. Green and H. Greenlee and L. Gu and W. Gu and R. Guenette and L. Hagaman and M. D. Handley and O. Hen and A. Hergenhan and M. Harrison and S. Hawkins and C. Hilgenberg and G. A. Horton-Smith and A. Hussain and B. Irwin and M. S. Ismail and C. James and X. Ji and J. H. Jo and A. Johnson and R. A. Johnson and D. Kalra and G. Karagiorgi and W. Ketchum and A. Kelly and M. Kirby and T. Kobilarcik and K. Kumar and N. Lane and J. -Y. Li and Y. Li and K. Lin and B. R. Littlejohn and L. Liu and S. Liu and W. C. Louis and X. Luo and T. Mahmud and N. Majeed and C. Mariani and J. Marshall and D. A. Martinez Caicedo and F. Martinez Lopez and M. G. Manuel Alves and S. Martynenko and A. Mastbaum and I. Mawby and N. McConkey and B. McConnell and L. Mellet and J. Mendez and J. Micallef and T. Mohayai and A. Mogan and M. Mooney and A. F. Moor and C. D. Moore and L. Mora Lepin and M. A. Hernandez Morquecho and M. M. Moudgalya and S. Mulleria Babu and D. Naples and A. Navrer-Agasson and N. Nayak and M. Nebot-Guinot and C. Nguyen and L. Nguyen and J. Nowak and N. Oza and O. Palamara and N. Pallat and V. Paolone and A. Papadopoulou and V. Papavassiliou and H. Parkinson and S. F. Pate and N. Patel and Z. Pavlovic and E. Piasetzky and K. Pletcher and I. Pophale and X. Qian and J. L. Raaf and V. Radeka and A. Rafique and R. Raymond and M. Reggiani-Guzzo and J. Rodriguez Rondon and M. Rosenberg and M. Ross-Lonergan and I. Safa and C. Sauer and D. W. Schmitz and A. Schukraft and W. Seligman and M. H. Shaevitz and R. Sharankova and J. Shi and L. Silva and E. L. Snider and S. Soldner-Rembold and J. Spitz and M. Stancari and J. St. John and T. Strauss and A. M. Szelc and N. Taniuchi and K. Terao and C. Thorpe and D. Torbunov and D. Totani and M. Toups and A. Trettin and Y. -T. Tsai and J. Tyler and M. A. Uchida and T. Usher and B. Viren and J. Wang and L. Wang and M. Weber and H. Wei and A. J. White and S. Wolbers and T. Wongjirad and K. Wresilo and W. Wu and E. Yandel and T. Yang and L. E. Yates and H. W. Yu and G. P. Zeller and J. Zennamo and C. Zhang and Y. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.23691},
year = {2026}
}