Partial gamma-ray production cross sections for (n,xng) reactions in natural argon from 1 - 30 MeV

Abstract

Background: Neutron-induced backgrounds are a significant concern for experiments that require extremely low levels of radioactive backgrounds such as direct dark matter searches and neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments. Unmeasured neutron scattering cross sections are often accounted for incorrectly in Monte Carlo simulations. Purpose: Determine partial gamma-ray production cross sections for (n,xng) reactions in natural argon for incident neutron energies between 1 and 30 MeV. Methods: The broad spectrum neutron beam at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) was used used for the measurement. Neutron energies were determined using time-of-flight and resulting gamma rays from neutron-induced reactions were detected using the GErmanium Array for Neutron Induced Excitations (GEANIE). Results: Partial gamma-ray cross sections were measured for six excited states in Ar-40 and two excited states in Ar-39. Measured (n,xng) cross sections were compared to the TALYS and CoH3 nuclear reaction codes. Conclusions: These new measurements will help to identify potential backgrounds in neutrinoless double-beta decay and dark matter experiments that use argon as a detection medium or shielding. The measurements will also aid in the identification of neutron interactions in these experiments through the detection of gamma rays produced by (n,xng) reactions.

25 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Double Beta Decay, Majorana Neutrinos, and Neutrino Mass
• \textsc{MaGe} - a {\sc Geant4}-based Monte Carlo Application Framework for Low-background Germanium Experiments
• Evaluation of (alpha,n) Induced Neutrons as a Background for Dark Matter Experiments
• The MiniCLEAN Dark Matter Experiment
• The Majorana Demonstrator
• Depth Requirements for a Tonne-scale 76Ge Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay Experiment

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Benefits of MeV-scale reconstruction capabilities in large liquid argon time projection chambers
• Cosmogenic production of ${}^{39}$Ar and ${}^{37}$Ar in argon
• Study of cosmogenic activation above ground for the DarkSide-20k experiment
• Neutron inelastic scattering measurements on ${}^{136}$Xe at $E_n$ = 0.7 to 100 MeV
• First experimental determination of the ${}^{40}$Ar($n,2n$)${}^{39}$Ar reaction cross section and ${}^{39}$Ar production in Earth's atmosphere
• Neutron-induced gamma-ray production cross sections for the first excited-state transitions in Ne-20 and Ne-22