skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Background reduction in the SNO+ experiment

Abstract

SNO+ is a large multi-purpose liquid scintillator experiment, which first aim is to detect the neutrinoless double beta decay of {sup 130}Te. It is placed at SNOLAB, at 6000 m.w.e. and it is based on the SNO infrastructure. SNO+ will contain approximately 780 tonnes of liquid scintillator, loaded with {sup 130}Te inside an acrylic vessel (AV) with an external volume of ultra pure water to reduce the external backgrounds. Light produced in the scintillator by the interaction of particles will be detected with about 9,000 photomultiplier’s. For the neutrinoless double beta decay phase, due to its the extremely low rate expected, the control, knowledge and reduction of the background is essential. Moreover, it will also benefit other phases of the experiment focused on the study of solar neutrinos, nucleon decay, geoneutrinos and supernovae. In order to reduce the internal background level, a novel purification technique for tellurium loaded scintillators has been developed by the collaboration that reduces the U/Th concentration and several cosmic-activated isotopes by at least a factor 10{sup 2} -10{sup 3} in a single pass. In addition, different rejection techniques have been developed for the remaining internal backgrounds based on Monte-Carlo simulations. In this work, the scintillator purification techniquemore » and the levels obtained with it will be discussed. Furthermore, an overview of the different backgrounds for the double-beta phase will be presented, highlighting some of the techniques developed to reject the remained decays based on their expected timing differences.« less

Authors:
 [1]
  1. University of Oxford, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, OX1 Oxford (United Kingdom)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22488721
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
AIP Conference Proceedings
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 1672; Journal Issue: 1; Conference: LRT 2015: 5. international workshop in low radioactivity techniques, Seattle, WA (United States), 18-20 Mar 2015; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0094-243X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; CONCENTRATION RATIO; DOUBLE BETA DECAY; LIQUID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS; MONTE CARLO METHOD; NEUTRINO DETECTION; NUCLEONS; PHOSPHORS; PURIFICATION; SOLAR NEUTRINOS; SUDBURY NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY; SUPERNOVAE; TELLURIUM; TELLURIUM 130; VISIBLE RADIATION; WATER

Citation Formats

Segui, L. Background reduction in the SNO+ experiment. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4928004.
Segui, L. Background reduction in the SNO+ experiment. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4928004
Segui, L. 2015. "Background reduction in the SNO+ experiment". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4928004.
@article{osti_22488721,
title = {Background reduction in the SNO+ experiment},
author = {Segui, L.},
abstractNote = {SNO+ is a large multi-purpose liquid scintillator experiment, which first aim is to detect the neutrinoless double beta decay of {sup 130}Te. It is placed at SNOLAB, at 6000 m.w.e. and it is based on the SNO infrastructure. SNO+ will contain approximately 780 tonnes of liquid scintillator, loaded with {sup 130}Te inside an acrylic vessel (AV) with an external volume of ultra pure water to reduce the external backgrounds. Light produced in the scintillator by the interaction of particles will be detected with about 9,000 photomultiplier’s. For the neutrinoless double beta decay phase, due to its the extremely low rate expected, the control, knowledge and reduction of the background is essential. Moreover, it will also benefit other phases of the experiment focused on the study of solar neutrinos, nucleon decay, geoneutrinos and supernovae. In order to reduce the internal background level, a novel purification technique for tellurium loaded scintillators has been developed by the collaboration that reduces the U/Th concentration and several cosmic-activated isotopes by at least a factor 10{sup 2} -10{sup 3} in a single pass. In addition, different rejection techniques have been developed for the remaining internal backgrounds based on Monte-Carlo simulations. In this work, the scintillator purification technique and the levels obtained with it will be discussed. Furthermore, an overview of the different backgrounds for the double-beta phase will be presented, highlighting some of the techniques developed to reject the remained decays based on their expected timing differences.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4928004},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22488721}, journal = {AIP Conference Proceedings},
issn = {0094-243X},
number = 1,
volume = 1672,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 17 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Mon Aug 17 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}