Muon Removal Techniques in the MINOS $\theta_{13}$ Analysis

MINOS, a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment using the NuMI $\nu_{\mu}$ beam, might be able to access the last unknown neutrino oscillation angle ($\theta_{13}$) by searching for $\nu_{e}$ appearance in the far detector. The dominant background component to this search comes from the neutral current (NC) neutrino interactions. By removing the energy deposited by the muons from the $\nu_{\mu}$ charged current neutrino interaction events we are able to probe the hadronic shower modeling for the NC background. In addition, the efficiency of the signal selection is estimated by studying an artifical $\nu_{e}$ interaction data sample in which the energy deposited by the muons in the $\nu_{\mu}$ charged current neutrino interaction events are replaced by energy deposited by simulated electrons having the same momentum. The background estimation and the signal selection efficiency for the MINOS $\theta_{13}$ analysis obtained using the muon removal techniques will be presented.