Monitoring the SNS basement neutron background with the MARS detector
Date
2021-12-05
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Abstract
We present the analysis and results of the first dataset collected with the MARS neutron detector deployed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) for the purpose of monitoring and characterizing the beam-related neutron (BRN) background for the COHERENT collaboration. MARS was positioned next to the COH-CsI coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering detector in the SNS basement corridor. This is the basement location of closest proximity to the SNS target and thus, of highest neutrino flux, but it is also well shielded from the BRN flux by infill concrete and gravel. These data show the detector registered roughly one BRN per day. Using MARS' measured detection efficiency, the incoming BRN flux is estimated to be $1.20~\pm~0.56~\text{neutrons}/\text{m}^2/\text{MWh}$ for neutron energies above $\sim3.5$ MeV and up to a few tens of MeV. We compare our results with previous BRN measurements in the SNS basement corridor reported by other neutron detectors.
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Scholars@Duke
Phillip S. Barbeau
Professor Barbeau’s research interests are predominantly in the fields of neutrino and astroparticle physics. His efforts are focused on (but not limited to) three major areas of research: studying the physics of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering; novel searches for the dark matter in our universe; and searches for zero neutrino double beta decay. The unifying aspect of the work is the common need for new and creative detector development in order to solve some of the “hard” problems in low-background rare-event detection.
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