Liquid neon is a particularly promising medium for CLEAN. Because liquid neon has a high scintillation yield, has no long-lived radioactive isotopes, and can be easily purified by use of cold traps, it is an ideal medium for the detection of rare nuclear events. In addition, neon is inexpensive, dense, and transparent to its own scintillation light, making it practical for use in a large self-shielding apparatus. The central region of a full-sized detector would be a stainless steel tank holding approximately 135 metric tons of liquid neon. Inside the tank and suspended in the liquid neon would be several thousand photomultipliers.
Monte Carlo simulations of gamma ray backgrounds have been performed assuming liquid neon as both shielding and detection medium. Gamma ray events occur with high probability in the outer parts of the detector. In contrast, neutrino scattering events occur uniformly throughout the detector. We discriminate background gamma ray events from events of interest based on a spatial maximum likelihood method estimate of event location. Background estimates for CLEAN are presented, as well as an evaluation of the sensitivity of the detector for p–p neutrinos. Given these simulations, the physics potential of the CLEAN approach is evaluated. 相似文献