Radiopurity studies of a rock sample from the Aut region

Abstract

Efforts are underway to set up an underground laboratory in India for rare event studies like double beta decay, dark matter, etc. For such experiments, mitigation of radiation background is of paramount importance and understanding ambient background at the site, originating from the rock, is one of the crucial factors. With this motivation, the radiopurity studies of a rock sample from the potential laboratory site in the Aut tunnel of Himachal Pradesh (India) have been carried out using the TIFR low background experimental setup (TiLES). The concentration of ${}^{40}$K in Aut rock is observed to be lower by a factor of ~1000 as compared to the samples from BWH (Bodi West Hill), Tamil Nadu (India), current designated site for India-based Neutrino Observatory. The natural radioactive trace impurity ${}^{232}$Th is lower in the Aut rock, while ${}^{238}$U is somewhat higher than the BWH rock. Overall, the ambient gamma ray background at Aut is expected to be lower than the BWH, while ambient neutron background is expected to be similar. Further, to assess the neutron-induced long lived activity, fast neutron activation studies have been carried out on the both Aut and BWH rock samples at the Pelletron Linac Facility, Mumbai.

References in corpus (9)

• Dark Matter Search Results from a One Tonne$\times$Year Exposure of XENON1T
• Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: Status and Prospects
• Muon-Induced Background Study for Underground Laboratories
• Characterization and modeling of a low background HPGe detector
• Search for neutrinoless double beta decay
• Simulation of neutron background for a dark matter search experiment at JUSL
• Study of neutron-induced background and its effect on the search of 0$\nu \beta \beta$ decay in ${}^{124}\mathrm{Sn}$
• Estimation of low energy neutron flux ($E_n\le 15$ MeV) in India-based Neutrino Observatory cavern using Monte Carlo techniques
• Background Estimation Studies for Positron Double Beta Decay