Open AccessMeasurement of cosmogenic neutron production in SK-Gd
Author(s) -
M. Shinoki
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/2156/1/012187
Subject(s) - nuclear physics , physics , muon , neutron , cosmic ray , supernova , neutrino , neutrino detector , detector , radiochemistry , neutrino oscillation , chemistry , astrophysics , optics
The Super-Kamiokande-Gd (SK-Gd) experiment has started after adding the gadolinium (Gd) into ultra-pure water in the SK detector. SK-Gd dramatically improves the sensitivity to supernova relic neutrino searches by tagging neutrons. Cosmic-ray muons penetrating into the SK detector induce hadronic showers. Such muon often break oxygen nuclei in water and produce unstable radioactive isotopes and neutrons, which are major background sources for supernova relic neutrino searches. On the other hand, the cosmogenic neutrons produced by muons can be used for the detector calibration source. Since cosmic-ray muons penetrate into the SK detector continuously with the rate of 2 event/s, the cosmogenic neutrons can be used to monitor the stability and uniformity of the Gd concentration in water. In this proceeding, we report the progress of cosmogenic neutron measurement in SK-Gd.