Speaker
Mr
Yu Chen
(Syracuse University)
Description
Muon-induced neutrons are a problematic background for underground experiments searching for rare-event interactions such as WIMP dark-matter scatters, neutrino interactions with matter, neutrinoless double-beta decay, and proton decay. Current knowledge of both the rate and energy spectrum of such cosmogenic neutrons is limited. The Neutron Multiplicity Meter (NMM) is a water Cherenkov detector capable of measuring the cosmogenic neutron flux at the Soudan Underground Laboratory with an overburden of 2090 meters water equivalent. The NMM consists of two 2.2-tonne gadolinium-doped water tanks situated atop a 20-tonne lead target. It detects a high-energy (> ~50 MeV) neutron via moderation and capture of the secondary neutrons released when the former interacts in the lead target. I will present results from Monte Carlo simulation and analysis of the first ~2 year dataset.
Primary author
Mr
Yu Chen
(Syracuse University)
