A Fluka study of underground cosmogenic neutron production

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Published 29 August 2014 © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl
, , Citation A. Empl et al JCAP08(2014)064 DOI 10.1088/1475-7516/2014/08/064

1475-7516/2014/08/064

Abstract

Neutrons produced by cosmic muon interactions are important contributors to backgrounds in underground detectors when searching for rare events. Typically such neutrons can dominate the background, as they are particularly difficult to shield and detect. Since actual data is sparse and not well documented, simulation studies must be used to design shields and predict background rates. Thus validation of any simulation code is necessary to assure reliable results. This work compares in detail predictions of the FLUKA simulation code to existing data, and uses this code to report a simulation of cosmogenic backgrounds for typical detectors embedded in a water tank with liquid scintillator shielding.

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