A measurement of the muon-induced neutron yield in lead at a depth of 2850 m water equivalent

Journal Article · Thu Aug 08 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4818112· OSTI ID:22218185

Reichhart, L.; Ghag, C. ^[1]; Lindote, A.; Chepel, V.; DeViveiros, L.; Lopes, M. I.; Neves, F.; Pinto da Cunha, J.; Silva, C.; Solovov, V. N. ^[2]; Akimov, D. Yu.; Belov, V. A.; Burenkov, A. A.; Kobyakin, A. S.; Kovalenko, A. G.; Stekhanov, V. N. ^[3]; Araújo, H. M.; Bewick, A.; Currie, A.; Horn, M. ^[4] ; others, and

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1. School of Physics and Astronomy, SUPA University of Edinburgh, UK and High Energy Physics Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London (United Kingdom)
2. LIP-Coimbra and Department of Physics of the University of Coimbra (Portugal)
3. Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow (Russian Federation)
4. High Energy Physics Group, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London (United Kingdom)

We present results from the measurement of the neutron production rate in lead by high energy cosmic-ray muons at a depth of 2850 m water equivalent (mean muon energy of 260 GeV). A tonne-scale highly segmented plastic scintillator detector was utilised to detect both the energy depositions from the traversing muons as well as the delayed radiative capture signals of the induced neutrons. Complementary Monte Carlo simulations reproduce well the distributions of muons and detected muon-induced neutrons. Absolute agreement between simulation and data is of the order of 25%. By comparing the measured and simulated neutron capture rates a neutron yield in pure lead of (5.78{sub −0.28}{sup +0.21})×10{sup −3} neutrons/muon/(g/cm{sup 2}) has been obtained.

• OSTI ID: 22218185
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1549, Issue 1; Conference: LRT 2013: 4. international workshop on low radioactivity techniques, Assergi (Italy), 10-12 Apr 2013; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
CAPTURE
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMIC MUONS
ENERGY ABSORPTION
ENERGY LOSSES
GEV RANGE
LEAD
LEAD 206 TARGET
LEAD 208 TARGET
MONTE CARLO METHOD
MUON REACTIONS
NEUTRON DETECTION
NEUTRON REACTIONS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR REACTION YIELD
PLASTIC SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
WATER