Evaluation of (alpha,n) Induced Neutrons as a Background for Dark Matter Experiments

Abstract

Neutrons from ($\alpha$,n) reactions through thorium and uranium decays are important sources of background for direct dark matter detection. The neutron yields and energy spectra from a range of materials that are used to build dark matter detectors are calculated and tabulated. In addition to thorium and uranium decays, we found that $\alpha$ particles from samarium, often the dopant of the window materials of photomultiplier tubes (PMT), are also an important source of neutron yield. The results in this paper can be used as the input to Monte Carlo simulations for many materials that will be used for next generation experiments.

23 pages, 13 figures and 13 tables

References in corpus (2)

• First results from a Dark Matter search with liquid Argon at 87 K in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory
• A Model of Nuclear Recoil Scintillation Efficiency in Noble Liquids

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• Neutron production in (alpha, n) reactions
• Overview of Non-Liquid Noble Direct Detection Dark Matter Experiments
• Observation of annual modulation induced by $\gamma$ rays from ($\alpha$, $\gamma$) reactions at the Soudan Underground Laboratory
• Measurements of the ${}^{27}\mathrm{Al}(\alpha ,n)$ Thick Target Yield Near Threshold
• Concept of a fast neutron detector based on 10B-RPCs
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• ALPHANSO: Open-Source Modeling of ($\alpha$,n) Neutron Source Terms