Cosmogenic Backgrounds for Double Beta Decay
ORAL
Abstract
$^{136}$Xe is a very promising candidate isotope for neutrino-less double-beta decay searches, so reducing backgrounds that can mimic signals of this rare decay is a critical task for current and future experiments, such as EXO-200 and nEXO. One important category of backgrounds are those induced by neutrons produced by cosmic ray muons. These backgrounds can be studied in EXO-200 by selecting data shortly after the muon panels are triggered, making a ``neutron enriched'' data sample. This data is then checked against Monte Carlo simulations of these backgrounds. The results and insights from this study will be discussed.
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Authors
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Joshua Albert
Indiana University