Bochum 2009 – scientific programme
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HK: Fachverband Hadronen und Kerne
HK 67: Poster Session
HK 67.67: Poster
Thursday, March 19, 2009, 14:00–16:00, Audi-Max
Measurement of the low energy secondary electron emission rate induced by cosmic rays. — •Henrik Arlinghaus, Marcus Beck, Christian Weinheimer, Hans-Werner Ortjohann, Volker Hannen, and Helmut Baumeister — Institut für Kernphysik, Universität Münster
The KATRIN (KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino) experiment intends to determine the mass of the electron antineutrino to within 0.2 eV/c2 (90% C.L.) via a measurement of the endpoint region of the tritium beta-decay spectrum. This requires a background rate of some few millihertz. In order to understand this background, a GEANT4 simulation of the electron background in the main spectrometer was written. The low energy secondary electron emission rate induced by cosmic muons in stainless steel, was determined experimentally, and used in the simulation.
We will present the design and results of an experiment at the University of Münster which we used to measure the number of electrons which were ejected by cosmic muons passing through a stainless steel electrode. Using plastic scintillators, the incident muon angle of the triggering muons was varied. The ejected electrons were accelerated and focused onto a silicon PIN detector, and their energy as well as arrival time distribution was recorded.
Preliminary results show a secondary electron production rate of under 5% for all measured angles.
This project is supported by BMBF under contract number 05A08PM1.