Speaker
Description
The TEXONO Collaboration has established a detection system with an ultra-low energy high
purity germanium detector at Kuo-Sheng Nuclear Power Plant to monitor neutrino–nucleus
coherent scattering and to seek for dark matter. Understanding background origins and their
impact to the energy spectrum is crucial in this experiment because of the weak nature and
modest recoil energy of these uncommon events. During detector maintenance in non-
operational conditions above ground, high-energy neutron-induced interactions inside the
Germanium crystal yield tritium (3H). The varied Ge isotopes and neutron kinetic energy
produced by TENDL2015 determine the generation cross-section of 3H and 68Ge, respectively.
Fast cosmic-ray neutrons can form isotopes in Ge that can cause background in dark matter
studies. When solar activity is at its lowest, the cosmic ray-induced neutron flux is at its
highest, and vice-versa. The observed differential flux of neutrons caused by cosmic rays as a
function of neutron energy at the KSNL experimental site and their effects on sub-keV energy
domains will be the main focus of this study.
