Background Evaluation for the Neutron Sources in the Daya Bay Experiment

Abstract

We present an evaluation of the background induced by ${}^{241}$Am-${}^{13}$C neutron calibration sources in the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment. As a significant background for electron-antineutrino detection at 0.26$\pm$0.12 per detector per day on average, it has been estimated by a Monte Carlo simulation that was benchmarked by a special calibration data set. This dedicated data set also provided the energy spectrum of the background.

15 pages, 7 figures