Study of the Backgrounds for the Search for Proton Decay to 10^35 Y at the WIPP Site with the LANNDD Detector

Abstract

We briefly describe the LANNDD 70-kT liquid argon TPC proposal for the WIPP underground facility at Carlsbad, New Mexico. We, then, identify the key backgrounds for the search for p -> K+ nu_bar to 10^35 years lifetime. The most serious non-neutrino background is due to high-energy neutrons producing strange particles in the detector. We show that this can be reduced to an acceptable level by appropriate fiducial volume cuts.