Related papers: Neutron background at Boulby mine
We provide comprehensive calculations of total muon fluxes, energy and angular spectra, and mean muon energies in deep underground laboratories - under flat overburdens and mountains and underwater - using our latest calculation code, MUTE…
Ultra-low-background experiments address some of the most important open questions in particle physics, cosmology and astrophysics: the nature of dark matter, whether the neutrino is its own antiparticle, and does the proton decay. These…
New generation dark matter experiments aim at exploring the 10e-9 - 10e-10 pb cross-section region for the WIMP-nucleon scalar interactions. Neutrons produced in the detector components are one of the main factors that can limit detector…
In the Felsenkeller shallow-underground site, protected from cosmic muons by a 45 m thick rock overburden, a research laboratory including a 5 MV Pelletron ion accelerator and a number of radioactivity-measurement setups is located. The…
Simulations of the neutron background for future large-scale particle dark matter detectors are presented. Neutrons were generated in rock and detector elements via spontaneous fission and (alpha,n) reactions, and by cosmic-ray muons. The…
One of the main sources of a background in underground physics experiments (such as the investigation of solar neutrino flux, neutrino oscillations, neutrinoless double beta decay, and the search for annual and daily Cold Dark Matter…
While cosmic ray muons themselves are relatively easy to veto in underground detectors, their interactions with nuclei create more insidious backgrounds via: (i) the decays of long-lived isotopes produced by muon-induced spallation…
Beginning with the first linear collider, SLC at SLAC, it was quickly discovered that high energy muons that are produced in halo collimators in the beam delivery system can cause a significant background in the experiment detector.…
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…
The Boulby Dark Matter Collaboration (BDMC) is running several experiments for particle (WIMP) dark matter search in the Underground Boulby Laboratory. These include a liquid xenon detector (ZEPLIN I) and a low pressure gas TPC with…
We present the first measurements of the muon-induced neutron flux at the Boulby Underground Laboratory. The experiment was carried out with an 0.73 tonne liquid scintillator that also served as an anticoincidence system for the ZEPLIN-II…
When muons travel through matter, their energy losses lead to nuclear breakup ("spallation") processes. The delayed decays of unstable daughter nuclei produced by cosmic-ray muons are important backgrounds for low-energy astrophysical…
A technique to measure low intensity fast neutron flux has been developed. The design, calibrations, procedure for data analysis and interpretation of the results are discussed in detail. The technique has been applied to measure the…
In deep underground laboratories, environmental neutrons, which are produced at the cavern walls, introduce a source of background to rare event searches. The flux and spectrum of the ambient neutrons vary considerably with time and…
A brief review of the background for experiments at future electron-positron linear colliders is done. Two sources of background are discussed: the beam delivery system and the interaction point. The abundance of background muons, neutrons,…
Research reactors host a wide range of activities that make use of the intense neutron fluxes generated at these facilities. Recent interest in performing measurements with relatively low event rates, e.g. reactor antineutrino detection, at…
Muon-induced neutrons constitute a prominent background component in a number of low count rate experiments, namely direct searches for Dark Matter. In this work we describe a neutron detector to measure this background in an underground…
The existence of a cosmic neutrino background -- the analogue of the cosmic microwave background -- is a fundamental prediction of standard big bang cosmology. Up to now, the observational evidence for its existence is rather indirect and…
The natural neutron background influences the maximum achievable sensitivity in most deep underground nuclear, astroparticle and double-beta decay physics experiments. Reliable neutron flux numbers are an important ingredient in the design…
New physics can be searched for in deep inelastic scattering experiments. New phenomena, like additional production mechanisms for heavy quarks, manifest themselves through production and decays of short-lived hadrons, which give additional…