Browsing by Author "Sajid, Shayaan"

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    Studying the background response of Minihalo for design optimizations
    (Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2023-08) Sajid, Shayaan; Barbi, Mauricio; Kolev, Nikolay; Ouimet, Philippe; VIrtue, Clarence; Floricel, Remus
    The Neutron Detection Characterization Facility also called Minihalo Neutrino Detector is a planned research and development project that will enhance the detection capabilities of lead based neutrino detectors for supernova physics. It will will be used to construct low background He-3 counters for HALO-1kT supernova neutrino detector and will also provide experimental data on cross-sections of ν-Pb interactions at supernova energy scale. The detector will be placed at the SNS Facility in Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Oak Ridge, Tennesse, USA. The SNS Facility produces three ν species from impinging protons at liquid-mecury target. The νμ, ¯νμ, and νe are produced with a flux of approximately 4.3 ×107 cm−2 s−1 at supernova energy scale. Studying these neutrinos at supernova energy scales at SNS will provide necessary data for HALO-1KT supernova neutrino detector. Detecting neutrinos from core-collapse supernovae through detectors like HALO-1kT accurately can provide invaluable information on the explosion mechanism of massive stars which is not fully understood. This is because neutrinos are emitted from the core of a dying star a couple of hours before the star explodes. Therefore, by detecting these neutrinos, we can not only probe into the heart of exploding stars but also develop full 3D models on their complete explosion mechanism. In order to determine an optimal design for Minihalo, GEANT4 simulations of the proposed design are carried out to study how the detector responds to background at the Facility. Accurate fluxes of cosmic muon and gamma-ray backgrounds at the SNS Facility are simui lated and fired onto the detector. The data from the simulations is analyzed using th ROOT package. This work focuses on the energy deposition of cosmic muons and gamma-rays in the scintillators, the optical photon spectra of scintillators and the background neutrons produced inside the lead from muon interactions. The background neutron spectrum is investigated in detail in order to determine the efficiency of the detector and the necessary change to the proposed design are also investigated to increase the efficiency.