1. Characterization of the LUNA neutron detector array for the measurement of the 13C(a,n)16O reaction
- Author
-
Csedreki, L., Ciani, G. F., Balibrea-Correa, J., Best, A., Aliotta, M., Barile, F., Bemmerer, D., Boeltzig, A., Broggini, C., Bruno, C. G., Caciolli, A., Cavanna, F., Chillery, T., Colombetti, P., Corvisiero, P., Davinson, T., Depalo, R., Di Leva, A., Elekes, Z., Ferraro, F., Fiore, E. M., Formicola, A., Fulop, Zs., Gervino, G., Guglielmetti, A., Gustavino, C., Gyurky, Gy., Imbriani, G., Janas, Z., Junker, M., Kochanek, I., Lugaro, M., Marigo, P., Masha, E., Mazzocchi, C., Menegazzo, R., Mossa, V., Pantaleo, F. R., Paticchio, V., Perrino, R., Piatti, D., Prati, P., Schiavulli, L., Stockel, K., Straniero, O., Szucs, T., Takacs, M. P., Terrasi, F., and Zavatarelli, S. more...
- Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors ,Nuclear Experiment - Abstract
We introduce the LUNA neutron detector array developed for the investigation of the 13C(a,n)16O reaction towards its astrophysical s-process Gamow peak in the low-background environment of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). Eighteen 3He counters are arranged in two different configurations (in a vertical and a horizontal orientation) to optimize neutron detection effciency, target handling and target cooling over the investigated energy range Ea;lab = 300 - 400 keV (En = 2.2 - 2.6 MeV in emitted neutron energy). As a result of the deep underground location, the passive shielding of the setup and active background suppression using pulse shape discrimination, we reached a total background rate of 1.23 +- 0.12 counts/hour. This resulted in an improvement of two orders of magnitude over the state of the art allowing a direct measurement of the 13C(a,n)16O cross-section down to Ea;lab = 300 keV. The absolute neutron detection efficiency of the setup was determined using the 51V(p,n)51Cr reaction and an AmBe radioactive source, and completed with a Geant4 simulation. We determined a (34+-3) % and (38+-3) % detection efficiency for the vertical and horizontal configurations, respectively, for En = 2.4 MeV neutrons., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, to be published in NIMA more...
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF