Small neutrino detector to detect neutrinos from a nuclear reactor

Particles, Track, Event, Run and Biasing
1

Hi, Is it possible to construct a neutrino detector that is small (one cubic meter) and weighs little (say about 15 kilos or less) and requires very few photomultiplier tubes (about 10 at most) in order to detect neutrinos from a nuclear reactor?

2

In Geant you could. This seems like a question beyond this forum though. Lot of variables at play, the biggest probably being how close to the reactor can you get, its power, and how long do you want to wait to detect. The major challenge is the background rate from cosmic rays, the sun, and from natural beta decays inside the earth. You also have to remove background radioactivity from all components, with steel and lead being the hardest to find free of radioactivity at the rates you would need.

Examples:(inverse beta) https://www.energy.gov/science/np/articles/detecting-neutrinos-nuclear-reactors-water
(coherent scattering) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/miniature-neutrino-detector-catches-elusive-particles-at-nuclear-reactor/

3 
Thank you very much for all the information. 
It's been very helpful. I have other questions:
 Can I simulate nuclear reactors with Geant4?. Is it because of all 
the background sources involved in neutrino detection 
that many of the neutrino experiments are carried out many meters underground?. So, based on the above, a non-underground neutrino detector would have a lot of background sources?, and therefore a lot of noise?, and therefore a non-underground neutrino detector would be impractical(of little use or useless)?
4

Hello,

I would say Geant4 would be probably the best tool to simulate the detector itself. For the “source” (the reactor), Geant4 COULD work to some extent but accurate burnup calculation has not being the focus of Geant4 development. There are ways for you to simulate the reactor in many other MC simulation tools and simply use that “output” as the “input” for Geant4.

/Pico

5 
Okay, thanks a lot for all the information. I'll keep it in mind. One more thing, so, in geant4 I can simulate the neutrino detector, I can simulate a neutrino source, and, Can geant4 simulate the neutrino interactions with the detector material?, in other words, Don't I need any additional software in order to simulate the interactions of neutrinos with matter?
6

Hello,

I encourage you to check the documentation Geant4 Documentation - Geant4 . In particular the Physics Reference Manual — Physics Reference Manual 11.3 documentation where you can find the section Neutrino Interactions — Physics Reference Manual 11.3 documentation .

Whatever is there is what is currently included (and documented) in Geant4. The toolkit is always expanding and there are also coupling with other physics MC tools.

Enjoy reading

/Pico

7 
Ok, thanks for the information. I'll check it out. On the other hand, I read that, in order to run a neutrino simulation with geant4, geant4 must be complemented with genie; Is this true?, Why?
8

Hi again,

I think this (old) slides would give you enough context. I am unsure as the state of the art of the situation inside Geant4 itself but I know various people are working on different alternatives to link Geant4 with other tools like FLUKA, Genie (and Pythia), etc…

/Pico

9 
Okay, thanks for your reply. And what could be achieved by linking Geant4 with these tools(Fluka, genie, Pythia, etc.)?
10

bench-marking, comparing, combining input with output… the world is your oyster.

11 
Okay, I think I get it. Thanks