Repurposing MINERvA for a DUNE Near Detector Prototype

The Deep Underground Neutrino Detector (DUNE) is the United States' next-generation flagship neutrino oscillation experiment. DUNE will help answer questions about our universe ranging from the matter antimatter asymmetry to whether protons can decay. As part of DUNE's extensive R&D program, the 2x2 demonstrator, a prototype liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) for DUNE's near detector complex, is being run at the NuMI neutrino beamline at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL). The 2x2 is a proof of concept of numerous newly developed detector technologies, including the first demonstration of a pixelated & modular LArTPC. In addition to its technical demonstrations, the 2x2 will be a capable neutrino experiment in its own right. In order to support these measurements we have re-installed and re-configured the MINERvA detector, which took data at FNAL from 2010 to 2019. MINERvA, a solid plastic scintillator detector, will primarily serve as a muon spectrometer for the primary 2x2 LArTPC but will also be capable of limited calorimetry and energy profile measurements. These additional data supplement those collected by the main 2x2 and provide critical information for each neutrino interaction, significantly improving our ability to make cross-section measurements. Re-installation was completed at the end of 2022, and an ongoing campaign of re-calibration and re-validation of the various MINERvA components is underway. MINERvA for 2x2, or Mx2 for short, is also the first component of the 2x2 prototype (and also DUNE as a whole) to have taken neutrino beam data, shown here in preliminary event displays.