Neutron interactions in the CUORE neutrinoless double beta decay experiment.

摘要

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0nuDBD) is a lepton-number violating process that can occur only for a massive Majorana neutrino. The search for 0nuDBD is currently the only practical experimental way to determine whether neutrinos are identical to their own antiparticles (Majorana neutrinos) or have distinct particle and anti-particle states (Dirac neutrinos). In addition, the observation of 0nuDBD can provide information about the absolute mass scale of the neutrino.;The Cuoricino experiment was a sensitive search for 0nuDBD, as well as a proof of principle for the next generation experiment, CUORE. CUORE will search for 0nuDBD of 130Te with a ton-scale array of unenriched TeO2 bolometers. By increasing mass and decreasing the background for 0nuDBD, the half-life sensitivity of CUORE will be a factor of twenty better than that of Cuoricino. The site for both of these experiments is the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, an underground laboratory with 3300 meters water equivalent rock overburden and a cosmic ray muon attenuation factor of 10-6. Because of the extreme low background requirements for CUORE, it is important that all potential sources of background in the 0nuDBD peak region at 2530 keV are well understood.;One potential source of background for CUORE comes from neutrons, winch can be produced underground both by (alpha,n) reactions and by fast cosmic ray muon interactions. Preliminary simulations by the CUORE collaboration indicate that these backgrounds will be negligible for CUORE. However, in order to accurately simulate the expected neutron background, it is important to understand the cross sections for neutron interactions with detector materials. In order to help refine these simulations, I have measured the gamma-ray production cross sections for interactions of neutrons on the abundant stable isotopes of Te using the GEANIE detector array at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. In addition, I have used the GEANIE data to set an upper limit for the production of a 2529 keV gamma-ray from the 126Te(n,n'-gamma) reaction. This gamma-ray is a potential source of interference for the 0nuDBD peak. Based on this measurement, the contribution of this line to the background is expected to be negligible.