Rock Neutron Backgrounds from FNAL Neutrino Beamlines in the -DRIFT Detector
Abstract
The -DRIFT collaboration seeks to detect low-energy nuclear recoils from CE or BSM interactions at FNAL. Backgrounds due to rock neutrons are an important concern. We present a~GENIE and~GEANT4 based model to estimate backgrounds from rock neutrons produced in neutrino-nucleus interactions within the rock walls surrounding the underground halls. This model was bench-marked against the 2009 COUPP experiment performed in the MINOS hall in the NuMI neutrino beam, and agreement is found between experimental results and the modeled result to within 30\%. Working from this validated model, a similar two-stage simulation was performed to estimate recoil backgrounds in the -DRIFT detector across several beamlines. In the first stage utilizing~GEANT4, neutrons were tallied exiting the walls of a rectangular underground hall utilizing four different neutrino beam configurations. These results are presented for use by other underground experiments requiring estimations of their rock neutron backgrounds. For -DRIFT, the second stage propagated neutrons from the walls and recorded energy deposited within a scintillator veto surrounding the detector and nuclear recoils within the detector's fiducial volume. The directional signal from the -DRIFT detector allows additional background subtraction. A sample calculation of a 10\,m3·\,yr exposure to the NuMI Low Energy (LE) beam configuration shows a CE signal-to-noise ratio of 2.5.
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