We present an accurate model of the muon-induced background in the DAMA/LIBRA experiment. Our work challenges proposed mechanisms which seek to explain the observed DAMA signal modulation with muon-induced backgrounds. Muon generation and transport are performed using the MUSIC/MUSUN code, and subsequent interactions in the vicinity of the DAMA detector cavern are simulated with Geant4. We estimate the total muon-induced neutron flux in the detector cavern to be Φnν=1.0×10−9 cm−2 s−1. We predict 3.49×10−5 counts/day/kg/keV, which accounts for less than 0.3% of the DAMA signal modulation amplitude.
@article{arxiv.1503.07225,
title = {Muon-induced neutrons do not explain the DAMA data},
author = {J. Klinger and V. A. Kudryavtsev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.07225},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PRL