Low Background Muon And Neutron Benchmarking For Applications In Ultra Rare Event Searches
Low-Background Muon and Neutron Benchmarking for Applications in Ultra-Rare Event Searches
John Greavu, Mentor: Professor Priscilla Cushman
Purpose The primary purpose of this study is to measure, to a high precision, the muon and neutron backgrounds experienced at the Low Background Counting Facility (Fig. 1) in the Soudan Underground Laboratory. An active muon veto shield lining most of the interior, in addition to a neutron detector—the Neutron Multiplicity Meter—in the facility, allow for benchmark low background research in addition to correlation studies between the two tracking devices. This is meant to be a follow-up to my current UROP, which I have been working on this spring semester with Professor Priscilla Cushman, Dr.’s Anthony Villano and Matthew Fritts, and fellow undergraduates Joseph Jeffers and Sean Geldert. In addition, there are several planned hardware upgrades to the facility and for that reason Joseph and I hope to be onsite at the laboratory over much of the summer.
Methods
The Soudan Underground Laboratory is a half-mile underground physics lab in the Soudan iron mine in northern Minnesota. The muon veto shield is an active muon-tracking device, which is a restored remnant of the hall’s previous tenants: the Soudan 1 and 2 proton decay searches. Throughout the last decade, the shield has been refurbished and provided with new custom electronics and a LabView-based data-acquisition system. The shield is constructed from panels of gas proportional tubes, filled with 90% Ar and 10% CO2, which nearly completely cover the ceiling and walls of the counting facility. Each panel is extruded aluminum formed into eight hexagonal wire chamber tubes, which are arranged in a honeycomb-like double layer as shown at the right of Fig 1. Each tube contains a gold wire strung down the center, which is connected in series to the three other wires from the other tubes in the same column, constituting one “channel”. The facility is divided into four
John Greavu, Mentor: Professor Priscilla Cushman
Purpose The primary purpose of this study is to measure, to a high precision, the muon and neutron backgrounds experienced at the Low Background Counting Facility (Fig. 1) in the Soudan Underground Laboratory. An active muon veto shield lining most of the interior, in addition to a neutron detector—the Neutron Multiplicity Meter—in the facility, allow for benchmark low background research in addition to correlation studies between the two tracking devices. This is meant to be a follow-up to my current UROP, which I have been working on this spring semester with Professor Priscilla Cushman, Dr.’s Anthony Villano and Matthew Fritts, and fellow undergraduates Joseph Jeffers and Sean Geldert. In addition, there are several planned hardware upgrades to the facility and for that reason Joseph and I hope to be onsite at the laboratory over much of the summer.
Methods
The Soudan Underground Laboratory is a half-mile underground physics lab in the Soudan iron mine in northern Minnesota. The muon veto shield is an active muon-tracking device, which is a restored remnant of the hall’s previous tenants: the Soudan 1 and 2 proton decay searches. Throughout the last decade, the shield has been refurbished and provided with new custom electronics and a LabView-based data-acquisition system. The shield is constructed from panels of gas proportional tubes, filled with 90% Ar and 10% CO2, which nearly completely cover the ceiling and walls of the counting facility. Each panel is extruded aluminum formed into eight hexagonal wire chamber tubes, which are arranged in a honeycomb-like double layer as shown at the right of Fig 1. Each tube contains a gold wire strung down the center, which is connected in series to the three other wires from the other tubes in the same column, constituting one “channel”. The facility is divided into four