An array of low-background $^3$He proportional counters for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
Abstract
An array of Neutral-Current Detectors (NCDs) has been built in order to make a unique measurement of the total active flux of solar neutrinos in the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). Data in the third phase of the SNO experiment were collected between November 2004 and November 2006, after the NCD array was added to improve the neutral-current sensitivity of the SNO detector. This array consisted of 36 strings of proportional counters filled with a mixture of He and CF gas capable of detecting the neutrons liberated by the neutrino-deuteron neutral current reaction in the DO, and four strings filled with a mixture of He and CF gas for background measurements. The proportional counter diameter is 5 cm. The total deployed array length was 398 m. The SNO NCD array is the lowest-radioactivity large array of proportional counters ever produced. This article describes the design, construction, deployment, and characterization of the NCD array, discusses the electronics and data acquisition system, and considers event signatures and backgrounds.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0705.3665,
title = {An array of low-background $^3$He proportional counters for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory},
author = {J. F. Amsbaugh and J. M. Anaya and J. Banar and T. J. Bowles and M. C. Browne and T. V. Bullard and T. H. Burritt and G. A. Cox-Mobrand and X. Dai and H. Deng and M. Di Marco and P. J. Doe and M. R. Dragowsky and C. A. Duba and F. A. Duncan and E. D. Earle and S. R. Elliott and E. -I. Esch and H. Fergani and J. A. Formaggio and M. M. Fowler and J. E. Franklin and P. Geissbühler and J. V. Germani and A. Goldschmidt and E. Guillian and A. L. Hallin and G. Harper and P. J. Harvey and R. Hazama and K. M. Heeger and J. Heise and A. Hime and M. A. Howe and M. Huang and L. L. Kormos and C. Kraus and C. B. Krauss and J. Law and I. T. Lawson and K. T. Lesko and J. C. Loach and S. Majerus and J. Manor and S. McGee and K. K. S. Miknaitis and G. G. Miller and B. Morissette and A. Myers and N. S. Oblath and H. M. O'Keeffe and R. W. Ollerhead and S. J. M. Peeters and A. W. P. Poon and G. Prior and S. D. Reitzner and K. Rielage and R. G. H. Robertson and P. Skensved and A. R. Smith and M. W. E. Smith and T. D. Steiger and L. C. Stonehill and P. M. Thornewell and N. Tolich and B. A. VanDevender and T. D. Van Wechel and B. L. Wall and H. Wan Chan Tseung and J. Wendland and N. West and J. B. Wilhelmy and J. F. Wilkerson and J. M. Wouters},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0705.3665},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
32 pages, 18 figures, 6 tables