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Cosmogenic neutron production in water at SNO+

M. Abreu1,2, A. Allega3, M. R. Anderson3, S. Andringa1, D. M. Asner4, D. J. Auty5, A. Bacon6, T. Baltazar1,2, F. Barão1,2 et al. (SNO+Collaboration)

F. Barão1,2, N. Barros7,8, R. Bayes3, E. W. Beier6, A. Bialek4,9, S. D. Biller10, E. Caden4,9, E. J. Callaghan11,12, M. Chen3, S. Cheng3, B. Cleveland4,9, D. Cookman13, J. Corning3, S. DeGraw10, R. Dehghani3, J. Deloye9, M. M. Depatie3, C. Dima14, J. Dittmer15, K. H. Dixon13, M. S. Esmaeilian5, E. Falk14, N. Fatemighomi4, R. Ford4,9, S. Gadamsetty11,12, A. Gaur5, D. Gooding16, C. Grant16, J. Grove3, S. Hall4, A. L. Hallin5, D. Hallman9, M. R. Hebert11,12, W. J. Heintzelman6, R. L. Helmer17, C. Hewitt10, B. Hreljac3, P. Huang10, R. Hunt-Stokes10, A. S. Inácio10, C. J. Jillings4,9, S. Kaluzienski3, T. Kaptanoglu11,12, J. Kladnik1,18, J. R. Klein6, L. L. Kormos19, B. Krar3, C. Kraus4, T. Kroupová6, C. Lake9, L. Lebanowski11,12, C. Lefebvre3, B. Liggins20, V. Lozza1,18, M. Luo6, S. Maguire4, A. Maio1,18, S. Manecki4,3, J. Maneira1,18, R. D. Martin3, N. McCauley21, A. B. McDonald3, G. Milton10, D. Morris3, M. Mubasher5, S. Naugle6, L. J. Nolan9, H. M. O’Keeffe19, G. D. Orebi Gann11,12, S. Ouyang22,23, J. Page3, S. Pal3, K. Paleshi9, W. Parker10, L. J. Pickard11,12, R. C. Pitelka6, B. Quenallata24,25, P. Ravi9, A. Reichold10, S. Riccetto3, J. Rose21, R. Rosero26, J. Shen6, J. Simms10, P. Skensved3, M. Smiley11,12, M. I. Stringer20, R. Tafirout17, B. Tam10, J. Tseng10, E. Vázquez-Jáuregui27, C. J. Virtue9, F. Wang22,23, M. Ward3, J. R. Wilson13,20, J. D. Wilson5, A. Wright3, S. Yang5, Z. Ye6, M. Yeh26, S. Yu3, Y. Zhang22,23, and K. Zuber15,28 (SNO+Collaboration)

  • 1Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), Avenida Professor Gama Pinto, 2, 1649-003, Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Departamento de Física, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
  • 3Queen’s University, Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
  • 4SNOLAB, Creighton Mine No. of 9, 1039 Regional Road 24, Sudbury, Ontario P3Y 1N2, Canada
  • 5University of Alberta, Department of Physics, 4-181 CCIS, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada
  • 6University of Pennsylvania, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6396, USA
  • 7Departamento de Física, Escola de Ciências, Universidade do Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal
  • 8LIP—Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, Escola de Ciências, Campus de Gualtar, Universidade do Minho, 4701-057 Braga, Portugal
  • 9Laurentian University, School of Natural Sciences, 935 Ramsey Lake Road, Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6, Canada
  • 10University of Oxford, The Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
  • 11University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, California 94720, Berkeley, USA
  • 12Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720-8153, USA
  • 13King’s College London, Department of Physics, Strand Building, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
  • 14University of Sussex, Physics and Astronomy, Pevensey II, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom
  • 15Technische Universität Dresden, Institut für Kern und Teilchenphysik, Zellescher Weg 19, Dresden, 01069, Germany
  • 16Boston University, Department of Physics, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
  • 17TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2A3, Canada
  • 18Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências (FCUL), Departamento de Física, Campo Grande, Edifício C8, 1749-016 Lisboa, Portugal
  • 19Lancaster University, Physics Department, Lancaster LA1 4YB, United Kingdom
  • 20Queen Mary, University of London, School of Physics and Astronomy, 327 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
  • 21University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom
  • 22Research Center for Particle Science and Technology, Institute of Frontier and Interdisciplinary Science, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, Shandong, China
  • 23Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation of Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, Shandong, China
  • 24Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas, Rua Larga, 3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 25Universidade de Coimbra, Departamento de Física (FCTUC), 3004-516, Coimbra, Portugal
  • 26Brookhaven National Laboratory, P.O. Box 5000, Upton, New York 11973-500, USA
  • 27Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, C.P. 04510, México
  • 28MTA Atomki, 4001 Debrecen, Hungary

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 052014 – Published 31 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vs3y-sbb2

Abstract

Accurate measurement of the cosmogenic muon-induced neutron yield is crucial for constraining a significant background in a wide range of low-energy physics searches. Although previous underground experiments have measured this yield across various cosmogenic muon energies, SNO+ is uniquely positioned due to its exposure to one of the highest average cosmogenic muon energies at 364 GeV. Using ultrapure water, we have determined a neutron yield of Yn=(3.38−0.30+0.23)×10−4  cm2 g−1 μ−1 at SNO+. Comparison with simulations demonstrates clear agreement with the fluka neutron production model, highlighting discrepancies with the widely used geant4 model. Furthermore, this measurement reveals a lower cosmogenic neutron yield than that observed by the SNO experiment, which used heavy water under identical muon flux conditions. This result provides new evidence that nuclear structure and target material composition significantly influence neutron production by cosmogenic muons, offering fresh insight with important implications for the design and background modeling of future underground experiments.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 052014– Published 31 March, 2026
  • Received 7 November 2025
  • Accepted 9 March 2026
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