The muon system of the Daya Bay Reactor antineutrino experiment

Understand

The Daya Bay experiment consists of functionally identical antineutrino detectors immersed in pools of ultrapure water in three well-separated underground experimental halls near two nuclear reactor complexes.

• These pools serve both as shields against natural, low-energy radiation, and as water Cherenkov detectors that efficiently detect cosmic muons using arrays of photomultiplier tubes.
• Each pool is covered by a plane of resistive plate chambers as an additional means of detecting muons.
• Design, construction, operation, and performance of these muon detectors are described.