Applied Antineutrino Physics (Q4 FY2019)
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Co-I Steven Dazeley studied aspects of directionality in WATCHMAN-like detectors. A key result from earlier in the project was an analysis of the background requirements for the successful detection of the directional antineutrino electron scattering interaction in the WATCHMAN detector at the Morton salt mine near the Perry reactor. Radon daughters were identified as the main contaminating background. FY19 we began to consider design elements of the PMT structure so that radon emanation from the PMTs can be removed. This has resulted in a new task now incorporated in the FY20 LCP for Far-field R&D, with contributions from LLNL and University of Wisconsin. LLNL Staff Physicist Sergey Perverzev examined the viability of detection of a high-rate interaction of reactor antineutrinos known as coherent scatter. This process is of interest because it could ultimately permit deployment of smaller-scale antineutrino detectors for reactor monitoring than is currently possible. Pereverzev completed a study which identified a testable hypothesis for the origin of noise in coherent scatter detectors, based on a theory known as self-organized criticality. The very small signals generated by antineutrinos interacting with typical detector materials can be mimics by an avalanche process that is inherent in many detection media. The ‘avalanche’ defined as a signal that mimic the antineutrino-nuclear coherent scatter interaction, is thought to build up as energy slowly accumulates within the media due to various low energy processes. The avalanche discharges once the accumulated energy exceeds a certain threshold, which is set by the temperature and other properties of the material such as the concentration of defects. A paper is forthcoming in FY20.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1597621
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-TR-802823; 1004666; TRN: US2102723
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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