Characterization of external neutron and gamma events in Eos

Eos is a multi-ton-scale demonstrator for future hybrid neutrino detectors that leverages both Cherenkov and scintillation light. Several novel technologies will be explored, including Water based Liquid Scintillator (WbLS). In this talk, we discuss the status of external neutron and γ background reconstruction in the Eos detector utilizing a Plutonium Beryllium (PuBe) neutron source. The PuBe source provides a constant neutron rate at 1.7 MHz, accompanied by a 4.4 MeV γ-ray for approximately 60% of the neutron emissions. With a high activity of 37 GBq, the PuBe source can be deployed externally. Therefore, the PuBe source can be used to demonstrate Eos' capacity to tag external neutron backgrounds and validate our simulated detector geometry. Reconstruction of γ and neutron sources can be more challenging due to the multi-scatter nature of these events, but we can test the performance of various vertex and position reconstruction algorithms optimized for water and WbLS. This presentation will outline the current status of data/simulation agreement for our reconstruction algorithms using the PuBe source.