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Cosmogenic neutron production at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

B. Aharmim⁷, S. N. Ahmed¹⁵, A. E. Anthony^17,a, N. Barros^9,b, E. W. Beier¹⁴, A. Bellerive⁵, B. Beltran¹, M. Bergevin^8,6,c, S. D. Biller¹³ et al. (SNO Collaboration)

S. D. Biller¹³, R. Bonventre^2,8, K. Boudjemline^5,15, M. G. Boulay^15,d, B. Cai¹⁵, E. J. Callaghan ^2,8, J. Caravaca^2,8, Y. D. Chan⁸, D. Chauhan^7,e, M. Chen¹⁵, B. T. Cleveland¹³, G. A. Cox^19,f, R. Curley^2,8, X. Dai^15,13,5, H. Deng^14,g, F. B. Descamps^2,8, J. A. Detwiler^8,h, P. J. Doe¹⁹, G. Doucas¹³, P.-L. Drouin⁵, M. Dunford^14,i, S. R. Elliott^10,19, H. C. Evans^15,*, G. T. Ewan¹⁵, J. Farine^7,5, H. Fergani¹³, F. Fleurot⁷, R. J. Ford^16,15, J. A. Formaggio^12,19, N. Gagnon^19,10,8,13, K. Gilje¹, J. TM. Goon¹¹, K. Graham^5,15, E. Guillian¹⁵, S. Habib¹, R. L. Hahn⁴, A. L. Hallin¹, E. D. Hallman⁷, P. J. Harvey¹⁵, R. Hazama^19,j, W. J. Heintzelman¹⁴, J. Heise^3,10,15,k, R. L. Helmer¹⁸, A. Hime¹⁰, C. Howard¹, M. Huang^17,7, P. Jagam⁶, B. Jamieson^3,l, N. A. Jelley¹³, M. Jerkins¹⁷, C. Kéfélian^2,8, K. J. Keeter^16,m, J. R. Klein^17,14, L. L. Kormos^15,n, M. Kos^15,o, A. Krüger⁷, C. Kraus^15,7, C. B. Krauss¹, T. Kutter¹¹, C. C. M. Kyba^14,p, B. J. Land^2,8, R. Lange⁴, J. Law⁶, I. T. Lawson^16,6, K. T. Lesko⁸, J. R. Leslie¹⁵, I. Levine^5,q, J. C. Loach^13,8, R. MacLellan^15,r, S. Majerus¹³, H. B. Mak¹⁵, J. Maneira⁹, R. D. Martin^15,8, A. Mastbaum^14,s, N. McCauley^14,13,t, A. B. McDonald¹⁵, S. R. McGee¹⁹, M. L. Miller^12,h, B. Monreal^12,u, J. Monroe^12,v, B. G. Nickel⁶, A. J. Noble^15,5, H. M. O’Keeffe^13,n, N. S. Oblath^19,12,w, C. E. Okada^8,x, R. W. Ollerhead⁶, G. D. Orebi Gann^2,14,8, S. M. Oser^3,18, R. A. Ott^12,y, S. J. M. Peeters^13,z, A. W. P. Poon⁸, G. Prior^8,aa, S. D. Reitzner^6,bb, K. Rielage^10,19, B. C. Robertson¹⁵, R. G. H. Robertson¹⁹, M. H. Schwendener⁷, J. A. Secrest^14,cc, S. R. Seibert^17,10,14,dd, O. Simard^5,ee, D. Sinclair^5,18, P. Skensved¹⁵, T. J. Sonley^12,e, L. C. Stonehill^10,19, G. Tešić^5,ff, N. Tolich¹⁹, T. Tsui^3,gg, R. Van Berg¹⁴, B. A. VanDevender^19,w, C. J. Virtue⁷, B. L. Wall¹⁹, D. Waller⁵, H. Wan Chan Tseung^13,19, D. L. Wark^13,hh, J. Wendland³, N. West¹³, J. F. Wilkerson^19,ii, J. R. Wilson^13,jj, T. Winchester¹⁹, A. Wright¹⁵, M. Yeh⁴, F. Zhang^5,kk, and K. Zuber^13,ll (SNO Collaboration)

¹Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R3, Canada
²Physics Department, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA
³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z1, Canada
⁴Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA
⁵Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Physics, Department of Physics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada
⁶Physics Department, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada
⁷Department of Physics and Astronomy, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6, Canada
⁸Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics and Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720-8153, USA
⁹Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, Av. Elias Garcia 14, 1°, 1000-149 Lisboa, Portugal
¹⁰Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
¹¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
¹²Laboratory for Nuclear Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
¹³Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
¹⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6396, USA
¹⁵Department of Physics, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
¹⁶SNOLAB, Lively, Ontario P3Y 1N2, Canada
¹⁷Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-0264, USA
¹⁸TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2A3, Canada
¹⁹Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA

^*Deceased.
^aPresent address: Global Development Lab, U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington D.C., USA.
^bPresent address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
^cPresent address: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA.
^dPresent address: Department of Physics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
^ePresent address: SNOLAB, Lively, Ontario, Canada.
^fPresent address: Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Karlsruhe, Germany.
^gPresent address: Rock Creek Group, Washington, D.C., USA.
^hPresent address: Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
ⁱPresent address: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 227, Heidelberg, Germany.
^jPresent address: Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka, Japan.
^kPresent address: Sanford Underground Research Laboratory, Lead, South Dakota, USA.
^lPresent address: Department of Physics, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
^mPresent address: Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota, USA.
ⁿPresent address: Physics Department, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom.
^oPresent address: Pelmorex Corp., Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
^pPresent address: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany.
^qPresent Address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Indiana University, South Bend, Indiana, USA.
^rPresent address: University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota, USA.
^sPresent address: Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago Illinois, USA.
^tPresent address: Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
^uPresent address: Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
^vPresent address: Dept. of Physics, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom.
^wPresent address: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA.
^xPresent address: Nevada National Security Site, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
^yPresent address: Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, California, USA.
^zPresent address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.
^aaPresent address: Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, Lisboa, Portugal.
^bbPresent address: Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA.
^ccPresent address: Dept. of Physics, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA.
^ddPresent address: Continuum Analytics, Austin, Texas, USA.
^eePresent address: CEA-Saclay, DSM/IRFU/SPP, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
^ffPresent address: Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
^ggPresent address: Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
^hhAlso at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, United Kingdom.
ⁱⁱPresent address: Department of Physics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
^jjPresent address: Department of Physics, King’s College London, United Kingdom.
^kkPresent address: Laufer Center, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA.
^llPresent address: Institut für Kern- und Teilchenphysik, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

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Phys. Rev. D 100, 112005 – Published 12 December, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.112005

Abstract

Neutrons produced in nuclear interactions initiated by cosmic-ray muons present an irreducible background to many rare-event searches, even in detectors located deep underground. Models for the production of these neutrons have been tested against previous experimental data, but the extrapolation to deeper sites is not well understood. Here we report results from an analysis of cosmogenically produced neutrons at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. A specific set of observables are presented, which can be used to benchmark the validity of geant4 physics models. In addition, the cosmogenic neutron yield, in units of $10^{- 4} {cm}^{2} / (g \cdot μ)$ , is measured to be $7.28 \pm 0.09 {(stat)}_{- 1.12}^{+ 1.59} (syst)$ in pure heavy water and $7.30 \pm 0.07 {(stat)}_{- 1.02}^{+ 1.40} (syst)$ in NaCl-loaded heavy water. These results provide unique insights into this potential background source for experiments at SNOLAB.

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Phys. Rev. D 100, 112005– Published 12 December, 2019

Vol. 100, Iss. 11 — 1 December 2019

Received 25 September 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.112005

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physical Review D

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Cosmogenic neutron production at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

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