The Monte Carlo simulation of the Borexino detector
Abstract
We describe the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation package of the Borexino detector and discuss the agreement of its output with data. The Borexino MC 'ab initio' simulates the energy loss of particles in all detector components and generates the resulting scintillation photons and their propagation within the liquid scintillator volume. The simulation accounts for absorption, reemission, and scattering of the optical photons and tracks them until they either are absorbed or reach the photocathode of one of the photomultiplier tubes. Photon detection is followed by a comprehensive simulation of the readout electronics response. The algorithm proceeds with a detailed simulation of the electronics chain. The MC is tuned using data collected with radioactive calibration sources deployed inside and around the scintillator volume. The simulation reproduces the energy response of the detector, its uniformity within the fiducial scintillator volume relevant to neutrino physics, and the time distribution of detected photons to better than 1% between 100 keV and several MeV. The techniques developed to simulate the Borexino detector and their level of refinement are of possible interest to the neutrino community, especially for current and future large-volume liquid scintillator experiments such as Kamland-Zen, SNO+, and Juno.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1704.02291,
title = {The Monte Carlo simulation of the Borexino detector},
author = {M. Agostini and K. Altenmuller and S. Appel and V. Atroshchenko and Z. Bagdasarian and D. Basilico and G. Bellini and J. Benziger and D. Bick and G. Bonfini and L. Borodikhina and D. Bravo and B. Caccianiga and F. Calaprice and A. Caminata and S. Caprioli and M. Carlini and P. Cavalcante and A. Chepurnov and K. Choi and D. D'Angelo and S. Davini and A. Derbin and X. F. Ding and L. Di Noto and I. Drachnev and K. Fomenko and A. Formozov and D. Franco and F. Froborg and F. Gabriele and C. Galbiati and C. Ghiano and M. Giammarchi and M. Goeger-Neff and A. Goretti and M. Gromov and C. Hagner and T. Houdy and E. Hungerford and Aldo Ianni and Andrea Ianni and A. Jany and D. Jeschke and V. Kobychev and D. Korablev and G. Korga and D. Kryn and M. Laubenstein and E. Litvinovich and F. Lombardi and P. Lombardi and L. Ludhova and G. Lukyanchenko and I. Machulin and G. Manuzio and S. Marcocci and J. Martyn and E. Meroni and M. Meyer and L. Miramonti and M. Misiaszek and V. Muratova and B. Neumair and L. Oberauer and B. Opitz and F. Ortica and M. Pallavicini and L. Papp and A. Pocar and G. Ranucci and A. Re and A. Romani and R. Roncin and N. Rossi and S. Schonert and D. Semenov and P. Shakina and M. Skorokhvatov and O. Smirnov and A. Sotnikov and L. F. F. Stokes and Y. Suvorov and R. Tartaglia and G. Testera and J. Thurn and M. Toropova and E. Unzhakov and A. Vishneva and R. B. Vogelaar and F. von Feilitzsch and H. Wang and S. Weinz and M. Wojcik and M. Wurm and Z. Yokley and O. Zaimidoroga and S. Zavatarelli and K. Zuber and G. Zuzel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.02291},
year = {2017}
}