Background Measurements in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory

Abstract

The gamma background flux below 3000 keV in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), Italy, has been measured using a 3" diameter NaI(Tl) detector at different underground positions: In hall A, hall B, the interferometer tunnel, and inside the Large Volume Detector (LVD). The integrated flux is 0.3--0.4 s${}^{-1}$cm${}^{-2}$ at the first three locations, and is lower by two orders of magnitude inside LVD. With the help of Monte Carlo simulations for every location, the contribution of the individual primordial isotopes to the background has been determined. Using an 11" diameter NaI(Tl) detector, the background neutron flux in the LNGS interferometer tunnel has been estimated. Within the uncertainties, the result agrees with those from other neutron measurements in the main halls.

6 pages, 6 figures, accepted version

References in corpus (7)

• First Dark Matter Results from the XENON100 Experiment
• Muon-Induced Background Study for Underground Laboratories
• Neutron Flux at the Gran Sasso Underground LaboratoryRevisited
• Experimental quantum tomography of photonic qudits via mutually unbiased basis
• Muon-induced neutron production and detection with GEANT4 and FLUKA
• Monte Carlo evaluation of the external gamma, neutron and muon induced background sources in the CUORE experiment
• A low background facility inside the LVD detector at Gran Sasso

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• Direct dark matter detection: the next decade
• Material screening and selection for XENON100
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• Double-Weak Decays of ${}^{124}$Xe and ${}^{136}$Xe in the XENON1T and XENONnT Experiments
• The neutron background of the XENON100 dark matter experiment
• Geant4-based electromagnetic background model for the CRESST dark matter experiment
• Flux measurement of fast neutrons in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory
• Preliminary study of feasibility of an experiment looking for excited state double beta transitions in tin
• Environmental sub-MeV neutron measurement at the Gran Sasso surface laboratory with a super-fine-grained nuclear emulsion detector
• Design of a mobile neutron spectrometer for the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS)
• Performance of a SiPM-based, plastic scintillator muon veto prototype for CUPID