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Register a new userCosmic-muon flux and annual modulation in Borexino at 3800 m water-equivalent depth
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Davide D'Angelo Dr.
Publication date
2012
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We have measured the muon flux at the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory (3800 m w.e.) to be (3.41 pm 0.01) times 10-4m-2s-1 using four years of Borexino data. A modulation of this signal is observed with a period of (366pm3) days and a relative amplitude of (1.29 pm 0.07)%. The measured phase is (179 pm 6) days, corresponding to a maximum on the 28th of June. Using the most complete atmospheric data models available, muon rate fluctuations are shown to be positively correlated with atmospheric temperature, with an effective coefficient {alpha}T = 0.93 pm 0.04. This result represents the most precise study of the muon flux modulation for this site and is in good agreement with expectations.
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The solar neutrino experiment Borexino, which is located in the Gran Sasso underground laboratories, is in a unique position to study muon-induced backgrounds in an organic liquid scintillator. In this study, a large sample of cosmic muons is identified and tracked by a muon veto detector external to the liquid scintillator, and by the specific light patterns observed when muons cross the scintillator volume. The yield of muon-induced neutrons is found to be Yn =(3.10+-0.11)10-4 n/({mu} (g/cm2)). The distance profile between the parent muon track and the neutron capture point has the average value {lambda} = (81.5 +- 2.7)cm. Additionally the yields of a number of cosmogenic radioisotopes are measured for 12N, 12B, 8He, 9C, 9Li, 8B, 6He, 8Li, 11Be, 10C and 11C. All results are compared with Monte Carlo simulation predictions using the Fluka and Geant4 packages. General agreement between data and simulation is observed for the cosmogenic production yields with a few exceptions, the most prominent case being 11C yield for which both codes return about 50% lower values. The predicted {mu}-n distance profile and the neutron multiplicity distribution are found to be overall consistent with data.
Borexino is an organic liquid scintillator detector located in the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory (Italy). It is devoted mainly to the real time spectroscopy of low energy solar neutrinos via the elastic scattering on electrons in the target mass. The data taking campaign started in 2007 and led to key measurements of 7}Be and 8B solar neutrinos as well as antineutrinos from the earth (geo-neutrinos) and from nuclear power reactors. Borexino is also a powerful tool for the study of cosmic muons that penetrate the Gran Sasso rock coverage and thereby induced signals such as neutrons and radioactive isotopes which are today of critical importance for upcoming dark matter and neutrino physics experiments. Having reached 4y of continuous data taking we analyze here the muon signal and its possible modulation. The muon flux is measured to be (3.41+-0.01)E-4/m2/s. A modulation of this signal with a yearly period is observed with an amplitude of (1.29+-0.07)% and a phase of (179+-6) d, corresponding to June 28th. Muon rate fluctuations are compared to fluctuations in the atmospheric temperature on a daily base, exploiting the most complete atmospheric data and models available. The distributions are shown to be positively correlated and the effective temperature coefficient is measured to be alpha_T = 0.93 +- 0.04. This result is in good agreement with the expectations of the kaon-inclusive model at the laboratory site and represents an improvement over previous measurements performed at the same depth.
A study on cosmic muons has been performed for the two identical near and far neutrino detectors of the Double Chooz experiment, placed at $sim$120 and $sim$300 m.w.e. underground respectively, including the corresponding simulations using the MUSIC simulation package. This characterization has allowed to measure the muon flux reaching both detectors to be (3.64 $pm$ 0.04) $times$ 10$^{-4}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ for the near detector and (7.00 $pm$ 0.05) $times$ 10$^{-5}$ cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$ for the far one. The seasonal modulation of the signal has also been studied observing a positive correlation with the atmospheric temperature, leading to an effective temperature coefficient of $alpha_{T}$ = 0.212 $pm$ 0.024 and 0.355 $pm$ 0.019 for the near and far detectors respectively. These measurements, in good agreement with expectations based on theoretical models, represent one of the first measurements of this coefficient in shallow depth installations.
The DAMA experiment using ultra low background NaI(Tl) crystal scintillators has measured an annual modulation effect in the keV region which satisfies all the peculiarities of an effect induced by Dark Matter particles. In this paper we analyze this annual modulation effect in terms of mirror Dark Matter, an exact duplicate of ordinary matter from parallel hidden sector, which chemical composition is dominated by mirror helium while it can also contain significant fractions of heavier elements as Carbon and Oxygen. Dark mirror atoms are considered to interact with the target nuclei in the detector via Rutherford-like scattering induced by kinetic mixing between mirror and ordinary photons, both being massless. In the present analysis we consider various possible scenarios for the mirror matter chemical composition. For all the scenarios, the relevant ranges for the kinetic mixing parameter have been obtained taking also into account various existing uncertainties in nuclear and particle physics quantities.
The long-standing model-independent annual modulation effect measured by DAMA Collaboration is examined in the context of asymmetric mirror dark matter, assuming that dark atoms interact with target nuclei in the detector via kinetic mixing between mirror and ordinary photons, both being massless. The relevant ranges for the kinetic mixing parameter are obtained taking into account various existing uncertainties in nuclear and particle physics quantities as well as characteristic density and velocity distributions of dark matter in different halo models.
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