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Published April 27, 2009 | public
Journal Article

The KamLAND full-volume calibration system

Abstract

We have successfully built and operated a source deployment system for the KamLAND detector. This system was used to position radioactive sources throughout the delicate 1-kton liquid scintillator volume, while meeting stringent material cleanliness, material compatibility, and safety requirements. The calibration data obtained with this device were used to fully characterize detector position and energy reconstruction biases. As a result, the uncertainty in the size of the detector fiducial volume was reduced by a factor of two. Prior to calibration with this system, the fiducial volume was the largest source of systematic uncertainty in measuring the number of antineutrinos detected by KamLAND. This paper describes the design, operation and performance of this unique calibration system.

Additional Information

© 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd and SISSA. Received: March 11, 2009 Accepted: March 27, 2009. Published: April 27, 2009. We would like to thank several colleagues for their support and help in the design and construction of this system: Al Smith was always helpful with our material counting needs and shared much advice in the handling of low-background components. We thank Fred Beiser for advice on a variety of electronic issues and John Wolf for helping us construct and debug the IUs. Leo Greiner provided valuable insight and information based on his experiences with the previous KamLAND on-axis calibration system. We are grateful to GeorgeWebber for his help in the initial prototyping stages of this project and in the fabrication of the pivot block and cable clamps. We thank Mark Rosen for his work on the conceptual design of the system. The KamLAND experiment is supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and under the United States Department of Energy Office grant DEFG03-00ER41138 and other DOE grants to individual institutions. The Kamioka Mining and Smelting Company has provided services for activities in the mine.

Additional details

Created:
August 21, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023