Radiogenic Neutron Yield Calculations for Low-Background Experiments

Understand

Nuclear recoil backgrounds are one of the most dangerous backgrounds for many dark matter experiments.

• A primary source of nuclear recoils is radiogenic neutrons produced in the detector material itself.
• These neutrons result from fission and $(\alpha,n)$ reactions originating from uranium and thorium contamination.
• In this paper, we discuss neutron yields from these sources.