Karlsruhe 2024 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 32: Methods in astroparticle physics 2

T 32.3: Vortrag

Dienstag, 5. März 2024, 16:30–16:45, Geb. 20.30: 2.067

Towards the complete calibration of the LNGS mobile neutron spectrometer — Melih Solmaz¹ and •Francesco Pompa^2,3 — ¹Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Experimental Particle Physics — ²University of L'Aquila, Department of Physics and Chemistry — ³INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso

Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), located 1400 m below Gran Sasso mountains in Italy, hosts numerous rare event searches (e.g., dark matter direct detection and neutrinoless double beta decay experiments). Ambient neutrons produced at the cavern walls are a source of background for these elusive searches, potentially limiting the experimental sensitivity. Since both the neutron flux and spectrum vary with time and location, a mobile neutron counter would not only provide precise knowledge of this laboratory background for the hosted experiments but also resolve some inconsistencies between the past measurements.

In this talk, we present the design and the construction efforts of the portable neutron spectrometer for the LNGS underground laboratory as well as first test measurements. We also give an outlook towards the incoming detector calibration campaign and its final installation at LNGS.

This project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the grant number 05A21VK1.

Keywords: Neutron detection; Background measurement; Dark matter direct detection; Low flux neutron measurements