Estimating cosmogenic backgrounds in nEXO at SNOLAB using Geant4 and FLUKA
R. Ross, S. Al Kharusi, T. Brunner, S. Sangiorgio, E. Caden, U. Wichoski, B. G. Lenardo, B. Mong, A. Odian, A. Piepke, S. Thibado, A. Pocar, R. Saldanha, L. J. Kaufman, E. A. Allen, A. Amy, I. J. Arnquist, A. Atencio, V. Belov, A. Bolotnikov, J. Breslin, P. A. Breur, J. Brodsky, E. Brown, E. van Bruggen, B. Burnell, D. Cesmecioglu, M. Chiu, R. Collister, E. Coulthard, T. Daniels, L. Darroch, X. Defay, R. DeVoe, Y. Ding, M. J. Dolinski, B. Eckert, A. Emara, W. Fairbank, J. Farine, B. T. Foust, D. Gallacher, N. Gallice, A. Gaur, W. Gillis, F. Girard, R. Gornea, G. Gratta, C. A. Hardy, J. Hasi, M. Heffner, E. Hein, J. D. Holt, A. Iverson, T. V. John, A. K. Karelin, D. K. Keblbeck, P. Knauss, A. Kuchenkov, K. S. Kumar, T. Lange, A. Larson, M. B. Latif, S. C. Lavoie, K. G. Leach, A. Lennarz, D. S. Leonard, H. Lewis, X. Li, G. Li, C. Licciardi, R. Lindsay, R. MacLellan, S. Majidi, C. Malbrunot, M. Marquis, J. Masbou, M. Medina-Peregrina, S. Mngonyama, D. C. Moore, X. E. Ngwadla, K. Ni, I. Nitu, A. Nolan, J. C. Nzobadila Ondze, J. L. Orrell, G. Ortega, C. Overman, L. Pagani, H. Peltz Smalley, A. Pena-Perez, J. -F. Pratte, R. Rai, H. Rasiwala, D. Ray, A. Remnant, S. Rescia, F. Retière, G. Richardson, S. Rottoo, S. J. Sekula, T. Shetty, L. Si, V. Stekhanov, X. Sun, Tanmay, A. Todd, M. Yvaine, T. Totev, S. Triambak, O. A. Tyuka, S. Viel, M. P. Watts, M. Wehrfritz, S. Wilde, M. Worcester, H. Xu, L. Yang, M. Yu, O. Zeldovich, J. Zhao
Abstract
The nEXO experiment was designed to search for neutrinoless double beta decay in the isotope 136Xe, using a five-tonne, isotopically-enriched liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC). To meet nEXO's sensitivity goal, significant effort is placed on background mitigation strategies. Here, we evaluate the expected cosmogenic background rate for nEXO if placed at its preferred underground host site, SNOLAB. A comparison of results from Geant4 and FLUKA Monte Carlo simulations are presented. We perform detailed Monte Carlo simulations of muons reaching the underground SNOLAB environment using both Geant4 and FLUKA to study the production of radioactive isotopes from both direct spallation reactions or subsequent neutron-induced reactions. We find that, of the isotopes produced, the only one of concern for nEXO is 137Xe, produced by neutron capture on the xenon target. We develop a veto strategy that achieves an anticipated 92\% 137 rejection efficiency while keeping dead time to less than 1 day over a 10 year exposure.
Create a lesson
Related papers
Differential measurement of global polarization of Λ, Ξ, and Ω hyperons in Au+Au collisions at sNN=7.7--27~GeV from the RHIC Beam Energy Scan-II
The STAR Collaboration
Regularity of core coupled high-spin structure in neutron-rich 196-202Au isotopes approaching N =126
Y. Cho, Y. H. Kim, A. Navin et al.
Global polarization of Λ, Ξ, and Ω hyperons in Au+Au collisions from the RHIC Beam Energy Scan-II
STAR Collaboration
Probing the charm-quark dead cone effect in heavy ion collisions
CMS Collaboration
Current Results on Light Hypernuclei in the WASA-FRS HypHI Experiment
C. Rappold, P. Achenbach, H. Alibrahim Alfaki et al.
Comparing the fusion of 19O and 20O ions with protons at near barrier energies
Rohit Kumar, H. Desilets, R. T. deSouza et al.