8924046
Borexino calibrations: Hardware, Methods, and Results
Borexino was the first experiment to detect solar neutrinos in real-time in the sub-MeV region. In order to achieve high precision in the determination of neutrino rates, the detector design includes an internal and an external calibration system. This paper describes both calibration systems and the calibration campaigns that were carried out in the period between 2008 and 2011. We discuss some of the results and show that the calibration procedures preserved the radiopurity of the scintillator. The calibrations provided a detailed understanding of the detector response and led to a significant reduction of the systematic uncertainties in the Borexino measurements.
121396997
Measurement of CNGS muon neutrino speed with Borexino
Abstract We have measured the speed of muon neutrinos with the Borexino detector using short-bunch CNGS beams. The final result for the difference in time-of-flight between an 〈 E 〉 = 17 GeV muon neutrino and a particle moving at the speed of light in vacuum is δ t = 0.8 ± 0.7 stat ± 2.9 sys ns , well consistent with zero.
118577347
First Large Scale Production of Low Radioactivity Argon From Underground Sources
We report on the rst large-scale production of low radioactivity argon from underground gas wells. Low radioactivity argon is of general interest, in particular for the construction of large scale WIMP dark matter searches and detectors of reactor neutrinos for non-proliferation eorts. Atmospheric argon has an activity of about 1 Bq/kg from the decays of 39 Ar; the concentration of 39 Ar in the underground argon we are collecting is at least a factor of 100 lower than this value. The argon is collected from a stream of gas from a CO2 well in southwestern Colorado with a Vacuum Pressure Swing Adsorption (VPSA) plant. The gas from the well contains argon at a concentration of 400-600 ppm, and the VPSA plant produces an output stream with an argon concentration at the level of 30,000-50,000 ppm (3-5%) in a single pass. This gas is sent for further processing to Fermilab where it is puried by cryogenic distillation. The argon production rate is presently 0.5 kg/day.
35606815
Response of AGATA segmented HPGe detectors to gamma-rays up to 15.1 MeV
In many in-beam gamma spectroscopy experiments the detection of high-energy gamma rays in the range up to 10–20 MeV is of primary importance. New generation high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometers like AGATA and GRETA are composed of position sensitive segmented HPGe detectors and provide a reconstruction of the gamma-ray tracks. The performance of AGATA detectors in this energy range has, however, never been studied in detail. A measurement of the response to 15.1 MeV gamma rays has been performed using two HPGe triple clusters of the AGATA Demonstrator array, operating at LNL-INFN. This manuscript presents the preliminary results of a test of the AGATA detectors for the measurement of high-energy gamma rays, in terms of detection efficiency, energy resolution, tracking and performance of the pulse shape analysis (PSA) algorithms.
137334067
First scientific application of the membrane cryostat technology
We report on the design, fabrication, performance and commissioning of the first membrane cryostat to be used for scientific application. The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) has designed and fabricated a membrane cryostat prototype in collaboration with IHI Corporation (IHI). Original goals of the prototype are: to demonstrate the membrane cryostat technology in terms of thermal performance, feasibility for liquid argon, and leak tightness; to demonstrate that we can remove all the impurities from the vessel and achieve the purity requirements in a membrane cryostat without evacuation and using only a controlled gaseous argon purge; to demonstrate that we can achieve and maintain the purity requirements of the liquid argon during filling, purification, and maintenance mode using mole sieve and copper filters from the Liquid Argon Purity Demonstrator (LAPD) R&D project. The purity requirements of a large liquid argon detector such as LBNE are contaminants below 200 parts per trillion oxygen equiva...
121900736
THE BOREXINO DETECTOR
73707465
Single and pair neutron transfers at sub-barrier energies
Multinucleon transfer cross sections in the {sup 96}Zr+{sup 40}Ca system have been measured, in inverse kinematics, at bombarding energies ranging from the Coulomb barrier to {approx}25% below. Targetlike recoils have been identified in A, Z and velocity with the large solid angle magnetic spectrometer PRISMA. The experimental data for one- and two-neutron transfer channels have been compared with semiclassical microscopic calculations. For the two-neutron transfer channels the relevance of the transitions to the ground state and to the 0{sup +} excited states of {sup 42}Ca are discussed by employing, for the reaction mechanism, the successive approximation. It is found that the transition to the 0{sup +} state at {approx}6 MeV, whose wave function is dominated by the two neutrons in the 2p{sub 3/2} shell, is much larger than the ground state one. The comparison with the inclusive data reveals that transitions to states with high multipolarity and non-natural parity are important. This suggests that more complex two-particle correlations have to be incorporated in the treatment of the transfer process.