Cosmogenic Backgrounds in Borexino at 3800 m water-equivalent depth
Abstract
The solar neutrino experiment Borexino, which is located in the Gran Sasso underground laboratories, is in a unique position to study muon-induced backgrounds in an organic liquid scintillator. In this study, a large sample of cosmic muons is identified and tracked by a muon veto detector external to the liquid scintillator, and by the specific light patterns observed when muons cross the scintillator volume. The yield of muon-induced neutrons is found to be Yn =(3.10+-0.11)10-4 n/({\mu} (g/cm2)). The distance profile between the parent muon track and the neutron capture point has the average value {\lambda} = (81.5 +- 2.7)cm. Additionally the yields of a number of cosmogenic radioisotopes are measured for 12N, 12B, 8He, 9C, 9Li, 8B, 6He, 8Li, 11Be, 10C and 11C. All results are compared with Monte Carlo simulation predictions using the Fluka and Geant4 packages. General agreement between data and simulation is observed for the cosmogenic production yields with a few exceptions, the most prominent case being 11C yield for which both codes return about 50% lower values. The predicted {\mu}-n distance profile and the neutron multiplicity distribution are found to be overall consistent with data.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1304.7381,
title = {Cosmogenic Backgrounds in Borexino at 3800 m water-equivalent depth},
author = {G. Bellini and J. Benziger and D. Bick and G. Bonfini and D. Bravo and M. Buizza Avanzini and B. Caccianiga and L. Cadonati and F. Calaprice and P. Cavalcante and A. Chavarria and A. Chepurnov and D. D'Angelo and S. Davini and A. Derbin and A. Empl and A. Etenko and K. Fomenko and D. Franco and C. Galbiati and S. Gazzana and C. Ghiano and M. Giammarchi and M. Göger-Neff and A. Goretti and L. Grandi and C. Hagner and E. Hungerford and Aldo Ianni and Andrea Ianni and V. Kobychev and D. Korablev and G. Korga and D. Kryn and M. Laubenstein and T. Lewke and E. Litvinovich and B. Loer and P. Lombardi and F. Lombardi and L. Ludhova and G. Lukyanchenko and I. Machulin and S. Manecki and W. Maneschg and G. Manuzio and Q. Meindl and E. Meroni and L. Miramonti and M. Misiaszek and R. Möllenberg and P. Mosteiro and V. Muratova and L. Oberauer and M. Obolensky and F. Ortica and K. Otis and M. Pallavicini and L. Papp and L. Perasso and S. Perasso and A. Pocar and G. Ranucci and A. Razeto and A. Re and A. Romani and N. Rossi and R. Saldanha and C. Salvo and S. Schönert and H. Simgen and M. Skorokhvatov and O. Smirnov and A. Sotnikov and S. Sukhotin and Y. Suvorov and R. Tartaglia and G. Testera and D. Vignaud and R. B. Vogelaar and F. von Feilitzsch and J. Winter and M. Wojcik and A. Wright and M. Wurm and J. Xu and O. Zaimidoroga and S. Zavatarelli and G. Zuzel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1304.7381},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
26 pages, 13 figures (in 14 files), 4 tables. 3 extra data files. accepted by JCAP