Bulletin of the American Physical Society
5th Joint Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics and the Physical Society of Japan
Volume 63, Number 12
Tuesday–Saturday, October 23–27, 2018; Waikoloa, Hawaii
Session FN: Neutrino Physics III |
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Chair: Alfredo Galindo-Uribarri, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Room: Hilton Kohala 4 |
Friday, October 26, 2018 9:00AM - 9:15AM |
FN.00001: A Precision Neutrino Flux Detector at the Spallation Neutron Source Jason Newby For the COHERENT Collaboration. The first observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS) at the Spallation Neutron Source demonstrated the capability of the facility in experimental neutrino physics. The COHERENT collaboration is now measuring the nuclear target scaling of the interaction with multiple small-scale, first-light detectors. The potential of the neutrino source is fully realized with a suite of high precision neutrino measurements with ton-scale instruments. The neutrino flux is known within 10% and will present a floor in the uncertainty for detectors now being considered for a precision program. We present here a heavy water detector concept to directly measure the neutrino flux at the SNS using the well-known νe-deuteron charged current cross-section. This interaction, known to a few percent, is detected via Cherenkov light from the produced electron. A sufficient number of interactions will be recorded to achieve this precision within a year in a ton-scale detector with an optimized design to suppress backgrounds. |
Friday, October 26, 2018 9:15AM - 9:30AM |
FN.00002: Background Characterization at HFIR for PROSPECT Brennan Hackett, Alfredo Galindo-Uribarri, Elisa Romero-Romero, Blaine Heffron Reactor neutrino studies in recent years have highlighted inconsistencies in the predicted antineutrino flux and spectrum from reactors. PROSPECT, the Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, aims to answer these questions by precisely measuring antineutrinos at 7-9 meters from Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). The sterile neutrino parameter range is best explored whilst gathering antineutrino spectroscopic data over this range of baselines. Full characterization of backgrounds before and after commissioning of the experiment is important to fully understand the detector response, and to investigate background variations during reactor operations. For this purpose, an array of neutron and gamma detectors called DANG was developed. Characterization of backgrounds at HFIR through measurements and simulations will be presented. |
Friday, October 26, 2018 9:30AM - 9:45AM |
FN.00003: High Efficiency Resonance Laser Ionization of Actinides Elisa Romero-Romero, Alfredo Galindo-Uribarri, Yuan Liu, Daniel W. Stracener In the past decade the requirements for an ultra-low background for neutrino experiments have become more stringent. Several methods are used to reduce background including the use of ultra-pure materials. Resonance Ionization Mass Spectroscopy (RIMS) has been proposed as an efficient spectroscopic technique well suited for trace analysis; it provides high to ultra-high isotopic selectivity and very good overall efficiency. In this work we report the efficiency measured for Th, U and Pu using RIMS setup at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. |
Friday, October 26, 2018 9:45AM - 10:00AM |
FN.00004: Ambient neutron measurement with a He-3 proportional counter in an underground laboratory at the Kamioka Observatory Keita Mizukoshi, Ryosuke Taishaku, Keishi Hosokawa, Kazuyoshi Kobayashi, Kentaro Miuchi, Tatsuhiro Naka, Atsushi Takeda, Masashi Tanaka, Yoshiki Wada, Kohei Yorita, Sei Yoshida Neutron is one of the most serious backgrounds for underground experiments searching for rare events. Ambient neutron flux in an underground lab. of Kamioka Observatory was measured using a He-3 counter with various moderator setup. Since the detector response largely depends on the spectrum shape, energy spectra of neutrons transported from the rock to the lab. are estimated by Monte-Carlo simulations. The ratio of thermal neutron flux to the total one was found to depend on the thermalizing efficiency in the rock. Therefore, the ratio of the count rate without a moderator to that with a moderator was used to determine this parameter. As a result, the most-likely neutron spectrum predicted by the simulations with the parameters determined by the experimental results was obtained. The neutron flux is (23.52+/-0.68(stat.)+1.87-2.13(sys.)) μ/cm2s. The result suggests an interesting spectrum shape in high energy region (-MeV), which has not been indicated in previous studies. To clarify that, a scintillator is prepared. The new result will be reported. |
Friday, October 26, 2018 10:00AM - 10:15AM |
FN.00005: Neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions in the SNO detector Javier Caravaca Production of neutrons in neutrino interactions is a complicated process not very well understood. Our knowledge of neutrino cross-sections is limited at GeV energies, resulting in large uncertainties in hadron production, which are not typically measured by neutrino beam experiments. A better understanding of neutron production is needed to develop neutron tagging techniques for nucleon decay experiments, to enable neutrino and anti-neutrino separation in atmospheric neutrino experiments and to design more precise neutrino energy reconstruction algorithms for next generation detectors. The SNO experiment presents unique features for this study, namely: low cosmics rate and large neutron detection efficiency. We present a measurement of the neutron production in atmospheric neutrino interactions as a function of different observables and compare to the GENIE neutrino generator and the GEANT4 neutron transport model NeutronHP. Potentials of neutron tagging techniques and neutrino and anti-neutrino separation are also discussed in the context of atmospheric neutrino detectors. |
Friday, October 26, 2018 10:15AM - 10:30AM |
FN.00006: Assessment of Cosmogenically Produced Neutrons at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Ed Callaghan Neutrons produced via nuclear interactions by cosmic muons present an irreducible background to many rare event searches, even in detectors located deep underground. We report the observation of collections of neutrons following throughgoing muons at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, as well as a set of Monte Carlo simulations using the GEANT4 package which accurately reproduce characteristic observables of the follower neutrons in relation to the leading muon. Also presented is an estimate of the cosmogenic neutron yield per unit muon track length in heavy water at a depth water-equivalent of 6 km. |
Friday, October 26, 2018 10:30AM - 10:45AM |
FN.00007: ABSTRACT WITHDRAWN
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Friday, October 26, 2018 10:45AM - 11:00AM |
FN.00008: Muon Flux Measurements using the Majorana Demonstrator David J Tedeschi The Majorana Demonstrator (MJD) is an array of germanium detectors surrounded by active and passive shielding operating in the Davis Campus on the 4850 ft level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). Identification of the cosmic muon background by the detector shielding is an important part of the overall background rejection strategy required by the search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0vBB). Muons penetrating the shield are detected by an array of 32 scintillator panels. After three years of operation, the granularity of the veto-scintillator panels surrounding the detector array allows for the investigation of the angular dependence of the muon intensity. The muon-veto detector system and latest cosmic-muon results for the Demonstrator will be presented. |
Friday, October 26, 2018 11:00AM - 11:15AM |
FN.00009: Background projections for CUPID Giovanni Benato In the search for neutrinoless double beta decay, cryogenic calorimetric experiments play a fundamental role thanks to the possible use of different isotopes, the excellent energy resolution and the potential for particle identification. A major upgrade of the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is planned for the future, and denoted as CUPID: CUORE Upgrade with Particle Identification. In this talk, I will present the CUORE background model and, starting from this, expose the background predictions and sensitivity projections for various CUPID scenarios involving different isotopes. |
Friday, October 26, 2018 11:15AM - 11:30AM |
FN.00010: Simulating Muon-Induced Background for LEGEND Clay Barton Neutrinoless double beta decay (NLDBD) is a hypothetical process which, if observed, would confirm total lepton number violation as well as the Majorana nature of the neutrino. The Majorana Demonstrator and GERDA experiments have successfully used high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector technology in two different setups to push the experimental limits on the minimum half-life of this process in Ge-76. The Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay (LEGEND) collaboration has been formed to combine global efforts in the formation of a ton-scale germanium detector experiment to explore the inverted neutrino mass ordering. In this presentation, we will discuss the ongoing efforts of developing a GEANT4-based simulation module for the purpose of simulating the background induced by high energy muons at LEGEND. This module is highly modifiable, and this can be used to change parameters to reflect various LEGEND configurations and candidate deep underground host-laboratories for comparison. |
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