Seminars

# Background radiations in underground experiments

## by Dr. Vitaly Kudryavtsev (University of Sheffield)

Thursday, 9 November 2017 from to (Europe/Vienna)
at Wohllebengasse 12-14 ( Seminar Room )
 Description Background radiations are known to pose a threat to high-sensitivity experiments for rare event searches, such as dark matter, neutrinoless double-beta decay and neutrino detectors. These radiations are caused by minute concentrations of radioactive isotopes in the detector components (including the detector sensitive volume itself) and surrounding materials. They can also be caused by cosmic-rays either underground by producing background events indistinguishable from the expected signal, or at the surface by activating materials that are used in the detector construction. In this talk, I will review mechanisms and computer codes for gamma-ray and neutron production and transport. I will also discuss the background due to cosmic rays including activation of materials at the surface. As an example of background rate calculations, I will briefly summarise the work of the LZ Collaboration.