Measurements of the muon flux produced by 10.6 GeV electrons in a beam dump
Abstract
This paper presents the results of an experiment to assess the muon flux produced by the interaction of a 10.6 GeV electron beam with the Hall-A beam dump at Jefferson Lab (JLab). The goal was to benchmark Monte Carlo simulations that are an essential tool for estimating beam-related backgrounds in beam-dump experiments aimed at searching for rare events, such as the Beam Dump eXperiment (BDX) planned at JLab. Beam-produced muons were measured with a CsI(Tl) crystal sandwiched between a set of segmented plastic scintillators placed at two different distances from the dump: 25.7 m and 28.8 m. At each location the muon flux was sampled at different vertical positions with respect to the beam height. Data have been compared with detailed Monte Carlo simulations using FLUKA for the muon production in the dump and propagation to the detector, and GEANT4 to simulate the detector response. The good agreement between data and simulations, within the uncertainties of the soil composition and density, demonstrate the validity of our simulation tools to predict the beam-related muon background in electron beam-dump experiments at ∼ 10 GeV.
- Publication:
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Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A
- Pub Date:
- May 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.nima.2019.02.001
- Bibcode:
- 2019NIMPA.925..116B
- Keywords:
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- Light Dark Matter;
- Dark photon;
- Beam-dump experiment;
- Muon flux;
- Anti-coincidence shielding