A detection system to measure muon-induced neutrons for direct Dark Matter searches
Abstract
Muon-induced neutrons constitute a prominent background component in a number of low count rate experiments, namely direct searches for Dark Matter. In this work we describe a neutron detector to measure this background in an underground laboratory, the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane. The system is based on 1 m3 of Gd-loaded scintillator and it is linked with the muon veto of the EDELWEISS-II experiment for coincident muon detection. The system was installed in autumn 2008 and passed since then a number of commissioning tests proving its full functionality. The data-taking is continuously ongoing and a count rate of the order of 1 muon-induced neutron per day has been achieved.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1006.3098,
title = {A detection system to measure muon-induced neutrons for direct Dark Matter searches},
author = {V. Yu. Kozlov and E. Armengaud and C. Augier and A. Benoit and L. Berge and O. Besida and J. Blumer and A. Broniatowski and V. Brudanin and A. Chantelauze and M. Chapellier and G. Chardin and F. Charlieux and S. Collin and X. Defay and M. De Jesus and P. Di Stefano and Y. Dolgorouki and J. Domange and L. Dumoulin and K. Eitel and J. Gascon and G. Gerbier and M. Gros and M. Hannawald and S. Herve and A. Juillard and H. Kluck and R. Lemrani and P. Loaiza and A. Lubashevskiy and S. Marnieros and X. -F. Navick and E. Olivieri and P. Pari and B. Paul and S. Rozov and V. Sanglard and S. Scorza and S. Semikh and A. S. Torrento-Coello and L. Vagneron and M-A. Verdier and E. Yakushev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.3098},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics; 14 pages, 10 figures