Radiation levels in the SSC interaction regions

Abstract

The radiation environment in a typical SSC detector has been evaluated using the best available particle production models coupled with Monte Carlo simulations of hadronic and electromagnetic cascades. The problems studied include direct charged particle dose, dose inside a calorimeter from the cascades produced by incident photons and hadrons, the flux of neutrons and photons backscattered from the calorimeter into a central cavity, and neutron flux in the calorimeter. The luminosity lifetime at the SSC is dominated by collision losses in the interaction regions, where the luminosity is equivalent to losing an entire full-energy proton beam into the apparatus every six days. The result of an average p-p collision can be described quite simply. The mean charged multiplicity is about 110, and the particles are distributed nearly uniformly in pseudorapidity ({eta}) over all the angles of interest. The transverse momentum distribution is independent of angle, and for our purposes may be written as p{perpendicular}exp(-p{perpendicular}/{beta}). The mean value of p{perpendicular} may be as high as 0.6 GeV/c. Most of the radiation is produced by the very abundant low-p{perpendicular} particles. The dose or neutron fluence produced by individual particles in this energy region are simulated over a wide variety of conditions, and several measurements serve to confirm the simulation results. In general, the response (a dose, fluence, the number of backscattered neutrons, etc.) for an incident particle of momentum p can be parameterized in the form Np{sup {alpha}}, where 0.5 < {alpha}< 1.0. The authors believe most of their results to be accurate to within a factor of two or three, sufficiently precise to serve as the basis for detailed designs.