The Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) represents one of the most advanced experimental technologies for physics at the Intensity Frontier due to its full 3D-imaging, excellent particle identification and precise calorimetric energy reconstruction. By deploying LArTPCs in a dedicated calibration test beam line at Fermilab, the LArIAT program aims to experimentally calibrate this technology in a controlled environment.
LArIAT exploration of the LArTPC capabilities will serve the double purpose of improving this technology and providing physics results relevant to the neutrino oscillation physics and proton decay searches of the SBN and LBN programs.
A prominent R&D effort in LArIAT is the development of a new concept for LAr Scintillation Light Collection in neutrino detectors which will allows a uniform collection of the scintillation light with respect to the deposited energy, improving the calorimetric energy resolution.
LArIAT has a vast physics program which ranges from the analysis of electromagnetic shower reconstruction for electron-gamma separation, to the determination of the muon sign in the absence of magnetic field via its capture on nuclei, to the study of nuclear effects such as pion and kaon characteristic interaction modes. Data for LArIAT run I were taken in the spring of 2015. LArIAT data taking data for run II is currently taking place.
In this talk, I will present an overview of the LArIAT experiment and the measurement of the Total Pion Cross Section, LArIAT run I first result.