Early Results on Radioactive Background Characterization for Sanford Laboratory and DUSEL Experiments

Abstract

Measuring external sources of background for a deep underground laboratory at the Homestake Mine is an important step for the planned low-background experiments. The naturally occurring $\gamma$-ray fluxes at different levels in the Homestake Mine are studied using NaI detectors and Monte Carlo simulations. A simple algorithm is developed to convert the measured $\gamma$-ray rates into $\gamma$-ray fluxes. A good agreement between the measured and simulated $\gamma$-ray fluxes is achieved with the knowledge of the chemical composition and radioactivity levels in the rock. The neutron fluxes and $\gamma$-ray fluxes are predicted by Monte Carlo simulations for different levels including inaccessible levels that are under construction for the planned low background experiments.

16 pages, 2 figures, and 9 tables

References in corpus (4)

• Muon-Induced Background Study for Underground Laboratories
• Neutron Flux at the Gran Sasso Underground LaboratoryRevisited
• A Model of Nuclear Recoil Scintillation Efficiency in Noble Liquids
• Evaluation of (alpha,n) Induced Neutrons as a Background for Dark Matter Experiments

Cited by in corpus (15)

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• Simulations of Events for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Dark Matter Experiment
• Projected sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment to the $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay of ${}^{136}$Xe
• The Sanford Underground Research Facility at Homestake
• Cosmic Ray Muon Flux at the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake
• Measurement of the Gamma Ray Background in the Davis Cavern at the Sanford Underground Research Facility
• Cosmic Ray Muons in Laboratories Deep Underground
• Fast and Flexible Analysis of Direct Dark Matter Search Data with Machine Learning
• Two-neutrino double electron capture of ${}^{124}$Xe in the first LUX-ZEPLIN exposure
• New constraints on cosmic ray-boosted dark matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment