Measurement of the response of a Ga solar neutrino experiment to neutrinos from an 37Ar source

Abstract

An intense source of 37Ar was produced by the (n, α) reaction on 40Ca by irradiating calcium oxide in the fast neutron breeder reactor at Zarechny, Russia. The 37Ar was released from the solid target, sealed into a small source, and was used to irradiate 13 tonnes of gallium metal in the Russian-American gallium solar neutrino experiment SAGE. The initial source strength was 409 2 kCi. The measured production rate of 71Ge on gallium metal was 11.0+1.0-0.9 (stat) 0.6 (syst.) atoms per day, which is 0.79+0.09-0.10 of the theoretically calculated production rate. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.