Study of the Production of Radioactive Isotopes through Cosmic Muon Spallation in KamLAND
Radioactive isotopes produced through cosmic muon spallation are a background for rare event detection in {nu} detectors, double-beta-decay experiments, and dark-matter searches. Understanding the nature of cosmogenic backgrounds is particularly important for future experiments aiming to determine the pep and CNO solar neutrino fluxes, for which the background is dominated by the spallation production of {sup 11}C. Data from the Kamioka Liquid scintillator Anti-Neutrino Detector (KamLAND) provides valuable information for better understanding these backgrounds, especially in liquid scintillator, and for checking estimates from current simulations based upon MUSIC, FLUKA, and Geant4. Using the time correlation between detected muons and neutron captures, the neutron production yield in the KamLAND liquid scintillator is measured to be (2.8 {+-} 0.3) x 10{sup -4} n/({mu} {center_dot} (g/cm{sup 2})). For other isotopes, the production yield is determined from the observed time correlation related to known isotope lifetimes. We find some yields are inconsistent with extrapolations based on an accelerator muon beam experiment.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Nuclear Science Division; Physics Division
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 964414
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-2182E; TRN: US0903472
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review C, Journal Name: Physical Review C; ISSN 0556-2813
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Measurement of cosmic-ray muon spallation products in a xenon-loaded liquid scintillator with KamLAND
11C Background in Liquid Scintillator Detectors