Ultra-sensitive in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy studies for nuclear astrophysics are performed at the LUNA (Laboratory for Underground Nuclear Astrophysics) 400 kV accelerator, deep underground in Italy's Gran Sasso laboratory. By virtue of a specially constructed passive shield, the laboratory gamma-ray background for E_\gamma < 3 MeV at LUNA has been reduced to levels comparable to those experienced in dedicated offline underground gamma-counting setups. The gamma-ray background induced by an incident alpha-beam has been studied. The data are used to evaluate the feasibility of sensitive in-beam experiments at LUNA and, by extension, at similar proposed facilities.
@article{arxiv.0812.3223,
title = {Ultra-sensitive in-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy for nuclear astrophysics at LUNA},
author = {A. Caciolli and L. Agostino and D. Bemmerer and R. Bonetti and C. Broggini and F. Confortola and P. Corvisiero and H. Costantini and Z. Elekes and A. Formicola and Zs. Fulop and G. Gervino and A. Guglielmetti and C. Gustavino and Gy. Gyurky and G. Imbriani and M. Junker and M. Laubenstein and A. Lemut and B. Limata and M. Marta and C. Mazzocchi and R. Menegazzo and P. Prati and V. Roca and C. Rolfs and C. Rossi Alvarez and E. Somorjai and O. Straniero and F. Strieder and F. Terrasi and H. P. Trautvetter},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.3223},
year = {2009}
}