Dortmund 2021 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 69: Neutrino physics without accelerators VI

T 69.4: Talk

Wednesday, March 17, 2021, 16:50–17:05, Ts

Background decomposition of the CONUS Experiment — •Janina Hakenmüller for the CONUS collaboration — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

The CONUS experiment uses four low energy threshold high-purity Germanium (Ge) spectrometers to look for coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CEνNS) at the nuclear power plant of Brokdorf, Germany, which provides a high antineutrino flux with energies below 10 MeV. A successful background suppression is crucial to the success of the experiment. It is achieved with an elaborated shell-like shield design including an active muon veto. The latter provides reduction of cosmic radiation, as at the nuclear power plant only an overburden of 24 m w.e. is available. The background composition and its reduction through the shield is studied with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations with the Geant4-based framework MaGe. Any potential reactor correlated background at the location of the experiment was examined in a dedicated measurement and simulation campaign. In the talk, it will be shown that the contribution is negligible within the shield. A full description of the remaining non-reactor correlated background components inside the shield within the region of interest for CEνNS below 1 keV_ee will be presented. Special attention is paid to time-dependent backgrounds such as the decay of cosmogenically activated isotopes and airborne radon. An outlook on possibilities to further suppress the remaining background will be given.