Fast neutron measurement at Soudan Mine using a large liquid scintillation detector

ORAL

Abstract

Characterizing neutron background is extremely important to the success of rare-event physics searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay and dark matter searches. Measuring the energy spectrum of fast neutrons for an underground laboratory is difficult and it requires intensive R\&D for a given technology. EJ-301 liquid scintillator(known also as NE-213) is implemented as the target for a 12 liter neutron detector fabricated at the University of South Dakota. The light output response to atmospheric neutrons from a few MeV up to $\sim$ 70 MeV has been calibrated for this detector. The detector has been taking data at Soudan Mine for over two years. We report the measured muon-induced neutrons in this paper.

*This work is supported in part by NSF PHY-0758120, PHYS-0919278, PHYS-0758120, PHYS-1242640, DOE grant DE-FG02-10ER46709, the Office of Research at the University of South Dakota and a 2010 research center support by the State of South Dakota.

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Authors

  • Chao Zhang

    • The University of South Dakota
    • University of South Dakota

  • Dongming Mei

    • The University of South Dakota
    • University of South Dakota