Long-term evolution of the neutron rate at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory

S. E. A. Orrigo; J. L. Tain; N. Mont-Geli; A. Tarifeño-Saldivia; L. M. Fraile; M. Grieger; J. Agramunt; A. Algora; D. Bemmerer; F. Calviño; G. Cortés; A. De Blas; I. Dillmann; A. Domínguez Bugarín; R. García; E. Nacher; A. Tolosa-Delgado

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10755-6

2021 Impact factor 4.991

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2022) 82: 814
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10755-6

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Long-term evolution of the neutron rate at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory

S. E. A. Orrigo¹^a, J. L. Tain¹, N. Mont-Geli², A. Tarifeño-Saldivia², L. M. Fraile³, M. Grieger⁴, J. Agramunt¹, A. Algora¹, D. Bemmerer⁴, F. Calviño², G. Cortés², A. De Blas², I. Dillmann⁵, A. Domínguez Bugarín³, R. García², E. Nacher¹ and A. Tolosa-Delgado¹

¹ Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universidad de Valencia, 46071, Valencia, Spain
² Institute of Energy Technologies (INTE), Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), 08028, Barcelona, Spain
³ Grupo de Física Nuclear & IPARCOS, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain
⁴ Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), 01328, Dresden, Germany
⁵ TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, V6T 2A3, Vancouver, BC, Canada

^a Sonja.Orrigo@ific.uv.es

Received: 26 May 2022
Accepted: 25 August 2022
Published online: 13 September 2022

Abstract

We report results on the long-term variation of the neutron counting rate at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory, of importance for several low-background experiments installed there, including rare-event searches. The measurement campaign was performed employing the High Efficiency Neutron Spectrometry Array (HENSA) mounted in Hall A and lasted 412 live days. The present study is the first long-term measurement of the neutron rate with sensitivity over a wide range of neutron energies (from thermal up to 0.1 GeV and beyond) performed in any underground laboratory so far. Data on the environmental variables inside the experimental hall (radon concentration, air temperature, air pressure and humidity) were also acquired during all the measurement campaign. We have investigated for the first time the evolution of the neutron rate for different energies of the neutrons and its correlation with the ambient variables.

© The Author(s) 2022

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