Simulated liquid argon interactions with neutrons

The GEANT4 physics simulation program is known to have errors in how hadronic interactions are implemented. This has the potential to cause errors in the Monte Carlos used to determine the expected neutron backgrounds in the MiniCLEAN single phase liquid argon WIMP detector. Elastic and inelastic collisions between neutrons and argon nuclei as well as neutron captures were simulated independently in order to characterize the accuracy of the implementation by GEANT4.9.3.pOl and GEANT4.9.5. The effective cross sections, angular distributions, photons, decay schemes, energy conservation, and momentum conservation were determined through analysis of the neutron tracks created by GEANT4. A large proportion of the interactions behave as expected, however energy and momentum are not conserved by varying degrees of severity with some GEANT4.9.3.pOl inelastic collisions resulting in over twice the correct amount of energy.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Harrington, Kathleen M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Simulated Liquid Argon Interactions and Kimberly J. Palladino.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78513

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/78513