13C(α,n)16O background in a liquid scintillator based neutrino experiment

Abstract

α from natural radioactivity may interact with a nucleus and emit a neutron. The reaction introduces the background to the liquid scintillator (LS) based neutrino experiments. In the LS detector, α comes from 238U, 232Th, and 210Po decay chains. For Gadolinium-doped LS (Gd-LS) detector, α also comes from 227Ac. The nucleus 13C is a natural component of Carbon which is rich in the LS. The background rate and spectrum should be subtracted carefully from the neutrino candidates. This paper describes the calculation of neutron yield and spectrum with uncertainty estimated. The results are relevant for many existing neutrino experiments and future LS or Gd-LS based experiments.