Fast neutron background characterization of the future Ricochet experiment at the ILL research nuclear reactor

Augier, C.; Baulieu, G.; Belov, V.; Berge, L.; Billard, J.; Bres, G.; Bret, J-. L.; Broniatowski, A.; Calvo, M.; Cazes, A.; Chaize, D.; Chapellier, M.; Chaplinsky, L.; Chemin, G.; Chen, R.; Colas, J.; De Jesus, M.; de Marcillac, P.; Dumoulin, L.; Exshaw, O.; Ferriol, S.; Figueroa-Feliciano, E.; Filippini, J. -B.; Formaggio, J. A.; Fuard, S.; Gascon, J.; Giuliani, A.; Goupy, J.; Goy, C.; Guerin, C.; Guy, E.; Harrington, P.; Heine, S. T.; Hertel, S. A.; Heusch, M.; Hirjibehedin, C. F.; Hong, Z.; Ianigro, J. -C.; Jin, Y.; Johnston, J. P.; Juillard, A.; Karaivanov, D.; Kazarcev, S.; Lamblin, J.; Lattaud, H.; Li, M.; Lubashevskiy, A.; Marnieros, S.; Mayer, D. W.; Minet, J.; Misiak, D.; Mocellin, J-. L.; Monfardini, A.; Mounier, F.; Oliver, W. D.; Olivieri, E.; Oriol, C.; Patel, P. K.; Perbet, E.; Pinckney, H. D.; Poda, D.; Ponomarev, D.; Rarbi, F.; Real, J. -S.; Redon, T.; Robert, A.; Rozov, S.; Rozova, I.; Salagnac, T.; Sanglard, V.; Schmidt, B.; Shevchik, Ye.; Sibille, V.; Soldner, T.; Stachurska, J.; Stutz, A.; Vagneron, L.; Van De Pontseele, W.; Vezzu, F.; Weber, S.; Winslow, L.; Yakushev, E.; Zinatulina, D.

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-11150-x

Fast neutron background characterization of the future Ricochet experiment at the ILL research nuclear reactor

Journal Article · Sat Jan 14 00:00:00 EST 2023 · European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-11150-x· OSTI ID:1909294

Augier, C.; Baulieu, G.; Belov, V.; Berge, L.; Billard, J.; Bres, G.; Bret, J-. L.; Broniatowski, A.; Calvo, M.; Cazes, A.; Chaize, D.; Chapellier, M.; Chaplinsky, L.; Chemin, G.; Chen, R.; Colas, J.; De Jesus, M.; de Marcillac, P.; Dumoulin, L.; Exshaw, O. more »

Abstract

The future Ricochet experiment aims at searching for new physics in the electroweak sector by providing a high precision measurement of the Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CENNS) process down to the sub-100 eV nuclear recoil energy range. The experiment will deploy a kg-scale low-energy-threshold detector array combining Ge and Zn target crystals 8.8 m away from the 58 MW research nuclear reactor core of the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France. Currently, the Ricochet Collaboration is characterizing the backgrounds at its future experimental site in order to optimize the experiment’s shielding design. The most threatening background component, which cannot be actively rejected by particle identification, consists of keV-scale neutron-induced nuclear recoils. These initial fast neutrons are generated by the reactor core and surrounding experiments (reactogenics), and by the cosmic rays producing primary neutrons and muon-induced neutrons in the surrounding materials. In this paper, we present the Ricochet neutron background characterization using $$^3$$ $^{3}$ He proportional counters which exhibit a high sensitivity to thermal, epithermal and fast neutrons. We compare these measurements to the Ricochet Geant4 simulations to validate our reactogenic and cosmogenic neutron background estimations. Eventually, we present our estimated neutron background for the future Ricochet experiment and the resulting CENNS detection significance. Our results show that depending on the effectiveness of the muon veto, we expect a total nuclear recoil background rate between 44 ± 3 and 9 ± 2 events/day/kg in the CENNS region of interest, i.e. between 50 eV and 1 keV. We therefore found that the Ricochet experiment should reach a statistical significance of 4.6 to 13.6 $$$$\sigma $$$$ $σ$ for the detection of CENNS after one reactor cycle, when only the limiting neutron background is considered.

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Research Organization:: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: French National Research Agency (ANR); Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Contributing Organization:: the Ricochet Collaboration

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0020181

OSTI ID:: 1909294

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2421465

Journal Information:: European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields (Online), Journal Name: European Physical Journal. C, Particles and Fields (Online) Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 83; ISSN 1434-6052

Publisher:: Springer Science + Business MediaCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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