Neutron- and muon-induced background in underground physics experiments

Abstract

Background induced by neutrons in deep underground laboratories is a critical issue for all experiments looking for rare events, such as dark matter interactions or neutrinoless 2-beta decay. Neutrons can be produced either by natural radioactivity, via spontaneous fission or (alpha,n) reactions, or by interactions initiated by high-energy cosmic rays. In all underground experiments, Monte Carlo simulations of neutron background play a crucial role for the evaluation of the total background rate and for the optimization of rejection strategies. The Monte Carlo methods that are commonly employed to evaluate neutron-induced background and to optimize the experimental setup, are reviewed and discussed. Focus is given to the issue of reliability of Monte Carlo background estimates.

10 pages, 8 figures. Presented in the IV ILIAS Annual Meeting. Accepted for publication on EPJ A

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• Dark Matter investigation by DAMA at Gran Sasso
• No role for muons in the DAMA annual modulation results
• Conceptual design and simulation of a water Cherenkov muon veto for the XENON1T experiment
• Monte Carlo evaluation of the external gamma, neutron and muon induced background sources in the CUORE experiment
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• Muon-induced backgrounds in the CUORICINO experiment
• A. Fluka Study of Underground Cosmogenic Neutron Production
• Measuring Muon-Induced Neutrons with Liquid Scintillation Detector at Soudan Mine
• Virtual depth by active background suppression: Revisiting the cosmic muon induced background of GERDA Phase II
• Simulation-based design study for the passive shielding of the COSINUS dark matter experiment
• Neutron and muon-induced background studies for the AMoRE double-beta decay experiment
• MaGe - a Geant4-based Monte Carlo framework for low-background experiments
• Li-containing scintillating bolometers for low background physics
• On the Energy Spectrum of Cosmogenic Neutrons
• Study of Cosmogenic Neutron Backgrounds at LNGS
• Water Cherenkov muon veto for the COSINUS experiment: design and simulation optimization
• miniBELEN: a modular neutron counter for (alpha,n) reactions
• Thick-target Yield of ${}^{65}$Cu($\alpha ,n{)}^{68}$Ga Near Threshold and Implications for Nuclear Medicine, Deep Underground Detector Backgrounds, and Nucleosynthesis