https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2019-12822-3
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Study of 
-ray background from cosmic muon induced neutrons
1
India-based Neutrino Observatory, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, 400005, Mumbai, India
2
Homi Bhabha National Institute, V.N. Purav Marg, 400094, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai, India
3
Department of Nuclear and Atomic Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, 400005, Mumbai, India
4
Pelletron Linac Facility, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, 400005, Mumbai, India
5
Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, 400085, Trombay, Mumbai, India
* e-mail: nanal@tifr.res.in
Received:
4
May
2019
Accepted:
2
July
2019
Published online:
23
August
2019
The contribution to -ray background from secondary neutrons, originating from cosmic muon interactions in Pb-Cu composite shield, has been measured via 
reactions in Cu and Ge. The minimization of background plays a key role in improving the sensitivity of rare event experimental searches like neutrinoless double beta decay and neutron background is often a major concern. It is important to understand secondary neutron production from cosmic muons, especially in materials like Cu and Pb, which often form a part of the detector or shields. The direct contribution of fast neutrons generated from cosmic muon interactions to the -ray background via reactions is investigated for the first time. Measurements are carried out in the low background HPGe detector setup, TiLES, using Pb-Cu composite shield as target material for muon interactions. Simulations have been carried out with GEANT4.10.00 and GEANT4.10.05, each with two different Physics lists. The observed intensities of for Cu are significantly under-predicted by GEANT4.10.00, while GEANT4.10.05 shows good agreement with the experimental data.
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature, 2019
