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Gamma-, neutron-, and muon-induced environmental background simulations for 100Mo-based bolometric double-beta decay experiment at Jinping Underground Laboratory

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Abstract

The sensitivity of an experiment to detect the Majorana neutrino mass via neutrinoless double-beta decay (\(0\nu \beta \beta\)) strongly depends on the rate of background events that can mimic this decay. One major source of this background is the radioactive emissions from the laboratory environment. In our study, we focused on assessing the background contributions from environmental gamma rays, neutrons, and underground muons to the Jinping bolometric demonstration experiment. This experiment uses an array of lithium molybdate crystal bolometers to probe the potential \(0\nu \beta \beta\) decay of the \(^{100}\)Mo isotope at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory. We also evaluated the shielding effectiveness of the experimental setup through an attenuation study. Our simulations indicate that the combined background from environmental gamma rays, neutrons, and muons in the relevant \(^{100}\)Mo \(0\nu \beta \beta\) Q-value region can be reduced to approximately 0.003 cts/kg/keV/yr.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Science Data Bank at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.10675 and https://cstr.cn/31253.11.sciencedb.10675.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Ion-Beam Application (MOE), Institute of Modern Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Wei Chen, Long Ma, Jin-Hui Chen & Huan-Zhong Huang

  2. University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Huan-Zhong Huang

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  1. Wei Chen
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  2. Long Ma
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Wei Chen, Long Ma, Jin-Hui Chen, and Huan-Zhong Huang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Long Ma, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Long Ma.

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Conflict of interest

Jin-Hui Chen is an editorial board member for Nuclear Science and Techniques and was not involved in the editorial review, or the decision to publish this article. All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

Additional information

This work was supported in part by the State Key Research Development Program in China (Nos. 2022YFA1604702 and 2022YFA1604900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 12025501), and Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Science (No. XDB34030200).

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Chen, W., Ma, L., Chen, JH. et al. Gamma-, neutron-, and muon-induced environmental background simulations for 100Mo-based bolometric double-beta decay experiment at Jinping Underground Laboratory. NUCL SCI TECH 34, 135 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41365-023-01299-9

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