Münster 2017 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 14: Astroparticle Physics I

HK 14.5: Vortrag

Dienstag, 28. März 2017, 12:15–12:30, F 33

Muon-induced Neutrons in GERDA — •Laura Vanhoefer for the GERDA collaboration — Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, München

Neutrons can produce background in experiments searching for rare events like neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay. Gerda is using germanium detectors operated in liquid argon to search for the 0νββ decay of ⁷⁶Ge. Since the signature is a peak at the Q-value of the decay, Q_ββ (2039 keV for ⁷⁶Ge), any energy deposition around the Q-value is potential background. Neutrons can produce long-lived radioisotopes inside the experiment via neutron capture, spallation etc. or excite nuclei. Energy deposition from the decay/de-excitation can mimic a 0νββ signal.

If the neutron flux inside the experiment is known, this background can be estimated. Neutron capture on germanium was used as a signature for determining the muon-induced neutron flux inside Gerda. This allows to refine background predictions for future ton scale 0νββ germanium experiments.