Title: Exploring nucleon spin structure through neutrino neutral-current interactions in MicroBooNE,
Abstract: The net contribution of the strange quark spins to the proton spin, $\Delta
s$, can be determined from neutral current elastic neutrino-proton interactions
at low momentum transfer combined with data from electron-proton scattering.
The probability of neutrino-proton interactions depends in part on the axial
form factor, which represents the spin structure of the proton and can be
separated into its quark flavor contributions. Low momentum transfer neutrino
neutral current interactions can be measured in MicroBooNE, a high-resolution
liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) in its first year of running in
the Booster Neutrino Beamline at Fermilab. The signal for these interactions in
MicroBooNE is a single short proton track. We present our work on the automated
reconstruction and classification of proton tracks in LArTPCs, an important
step in the determination of neutrino- nucleon cross sections and the
measurement of $\Delta s$.