Barometric pumping effect for radon-due neutron flux in underground laboratories
Stenkin, Yu. V. · Alekseenko, V. V. · Gromushkin, D. M. · Shchegolev, O. B. · Sulakov, V. P.
Original · EN
It is known that neutron background is a big problem for low-background experiments in underground Laboratories. Our global net of en-detectors sensitive to thermal neutrons includes the detectors running both on the surface and at different depths underground. We present here results obtained with the en-detector of 0.75 m² which is running more than 3 years in underground room at a depth of 25 m of water equivalent in Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow. Spontaneous increases in thermal neutron flux up to a factor of 3 were observed in delayed anti-correlation with barometric pressure. The phenomenon can be explained by a radon barometric pumping effect resulting in similar effect in neutron flux produced in (alpha,n)-reactions by alpha-decays of radon and its daughters in surrounding rock
English translation
This paper has no Arabic translation yet. Be the first: it takes a few seconds, and the result is stored for every future reader.