Speaker
Description
Coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEνNS) is a process well understood within the Standard Model. A high-precision study of CEνNS can be used to probe the Standard Model and reveal potential non-standard interactions. NUCLEUS is an experiment aiming to conduct such a high-precision measurement at the EdF Chooz-B nuclear power plant in France. The experiment is currently under construction, and simulations of ambient and intrinsic backgrounds help to predict the sensitivity to CEνNS and to optimise the background management capabilities of the experimental setup.
A considerable source for ambient background are neutrons induced either by cosmic rays in the atmosphere or by fast muons that directly hit the setup. With energies above a few MeV, such neutrons can trigger events in the experiment’s energy region of interest (ROI; up to 100 eV) with rates comparable to the predicted CEνNS signal. Their study is therefore of high interest.
A high-statistics simulation has been conducted, starting from ambient particles. The energy spectra deposited in NUCLEUS’s cryogenic CaWO$_4$ and Al$_2$O$_3$ targets are used to estimate the shielding power of the building. In a future step, the shielding power can be included in accurate sensitivity predictions of the experiment.
I will outline the procedure of a high-statistics ambient neutron and muon study. The resulting count rates in the experiment’s ROI and their impact on NUCLEUS’s sensitivity to CEνNS will be discussed.
| Submitted on behalf of a Collaboration? | Yes |
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