Evaluation of gadolinium's action on water Cherenkov detector systems with EGADS
Evaluation of gadolinium's action on water Cherenkov detector systems with EGADS
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DOI：
10.1016/j.nima.2020.163549
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发表时间：
2020-04-11
影响因子：
1.4
通讯作者：
Zhang, H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Marti, Ll;Ikeda, M.;Zhang, H.
大型水切伦科夫(WC)探测器既用于质子衰变研究，也用于中微子物理，是粒子物理中非常成功的工具。它们以其巨大的质量和带电粒子探测能力而闻名。虽然目前的WC探测器在很大的能量范围内重建带电粒子的轨迹，但它们不能有效地探测中子。Gd具有所有稳定核中最大的热中子俘获截面，并产生可高效率探测的8 MeV伽马级联。由于用溶解于水的Gd盐进行中子标记将带来许多新的物理机会，一个名为EADS的大规模研发计划被建立起来，以证明这项技术的可行性。EADS配备了WC探测器的所有组件，主要是一个200吨重的不锈钢水箱，配备了240个光电探测器、DAQ和一个水系统，该系统可以在保持Gd溶液的情况下去除水中的所有杂质。在这篇文章中，我们讨论了证明这一新技术的可行性的里程碑，并详细讨论了EGADS的特点。
Used for both proton decay searches and neutrino physics, large water Cherenkov (WC) detectors have been very successful tools in particle physics. They are notable for their large masses and charged particle detection capabilities. While current WC detectors reconstruct charged particle tracks over a wide energy range, they cannot efficiently detect neutrons. Gadolinium (Gd) has the largest thermal neutron capture cross section of all stable nuclei and produces an 8 MeV gamma cascade that can be detected with high efficiency. Because of the many new physics opportunities that neutron tagging with a Gd salt dissolved in water would open up, a large-scale R&D program called EGADS was established to demonstrate this technique's feasibility. EGADS features all the components of a WC detector, chiefly a 200-ton stainless steel water tank furnished with 240 photo-detectors, DAQ, and a water system that removes all impurities from water while keeping Gd in solution. In this paper we discuss the milestones towards demonstrating the feasibility of this novel technique, and the features of EGADS in detail.