Evaluation of the neutron background in CsI target for WIMP direct detection when using a reactor neutrino detector as a neutron veto system

Abstract

A direct Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) detector with a neutron veto system is designed to better reject neutrons. An experimental configuration is studied in the present paper: a WIMP detectors with CsI(Na) target is placed inside a reactor neutrino detector. The neutrino detector is used as a neutron veto device. The neutron background for the experimental design has been estimated using the Geant4 simulation. The results show that the neutron background can decrease to O(0.01) events per year per tonne of CsI(Na). We calculate the sensitivity to spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering. An exposure of 1 tonne × year could reach a cross-section of about 3 × 10-11 pb. © 2014 The Author(s).