Background Studies for the MINER Coherent Neutrino Scattering Reactor Experiment
Abstract
The proposed Mitchell Institute Neutrino Experiment at Reactor (MINER) experiment at the Nuclear Science Center at Texas A&M University will search for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering within close proximity (about 2 meters) of a 1 MW TRIGA nuclear reactor core using low threshold, cryogenic germanium and silicon detectors. Given the Standard Model cross section of the scattering process and the proposed experimental proximity to the reactor, as many as 5 to 20 events/kg/day are expected. We discuss the status of preliminary measurements to characterize the main backgrounds for the proposed experiment. Both in situ measurements at the experimental site and simulations using the MCNP and GEANT4 codes are described. A strategy for monitoring backgrounds during data taking is briefly discussed.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1609.02066,
title = {Background Studies for the MINER Coherent Neutrino Scattering Reactor Experiment},
author = {MINER Collaboration and G. Agnolet and W. Baker and D. Barker and R. Beck and T. J. Carroll and J. Cesar and P. Cushman and J. B. Dent and S. De Rijck and B. Dutta and W. Flanagan and M. Fritts and Y. Gao and H. R. Harris and C. C. Hays and V. Iyer and A. Jastram and F. Kadribasic and A. Kennedy and A. Kubik and I. Ogawa and K. Lang and R. Mahapatra and V. Mandic and R. D. Martin and N. Mast and S. McDeavitt and N. Mirabolfathi and B. Mohanty and K. Nakajima and J. Newhouse and J. L. Newstead and D. Phan and M. Proga and A. Roberts and G. Rogachev and R. Salazar and J. Sander and K. Senapati and M. Shimada and L. Strigari and Y. Tamagawa and W. Teizer and J. I. C. Vermaak and A. N. Villano and J. Walker and B. Webb and Z. Wetzel and S. A. Yadavalli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.02066},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
12 pages, 14 figures