Monte Carlo evaluation of the atmospheric neutrino background to nucleon decay in the Soudan 2 detector

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:5368768

Werkema, S J

Soudan 2 is an international collaborative effort to search for nucleon instability up to the 10{sup 32} year lifetime level. The experiment consists of a 1.09 kTon fine grained tracking calorimeter detector located 713 meters beneath the earth's surface. The detector readout permits the reconstruction of nucleon decay charged particle tracks and electro-magnetic showers in three dimensions with excellent spatial resolution. Also available is the dE/dx profile for each track, which in many cases allows particle identification and track direction determination. The large amount of information available per event from the Soudan 2 detector facilitates relatively efficient selection of nucleon decay events while maintaining a thorough rejection of the background. The most difficult background arises from the interactions of atmospheric neutrinos in the detector. This background can be reduced to less than 10% of the number of nucleon decay events expected in even the most difficult to analyze decay modes if nucleon decay occurs with a lifetime near 10{sup 32} years. If the nucleon is longer lived than this, the Soudan 2 experiment will be able to set credible lower limits on the nucleon lifetime.

• Research Organization: Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis, MN (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5368768
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

662360* -- Decays of Baryons-- (1992-)
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BACKGROUND RADIATION
BARYONS
COOPERATION
DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
LEPTONS
LIFETIME
LIMITING VALUES
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NEUTRINOS
NUCLEONS
PARTICLE DECAY
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATIONS
READOUT SYSTEMS
RESOLUTION
SHOWER COUNTERS
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES