Spectroscopic study of light scattering in linear alkylbenzene for liquid scintillator neutrino detectors

We has set up a light scattering spectrometer to study the depolarization of light scattering in linear alkylbenzene. From the scattering spectra it can be unambiguously shown that the depolarized part of light scattering belongs to Rayleigh scattering. The additional depolarized Rayleigh scattering can make the effective transparency of linear alkylbenzene much better than it was expected. Therefore sufficient scintillation photons can transmit through the large liquid scintillator detector of JUNO. Our study is crucial to achieving the unprecedented energy resolution 3\%/$\sqrt{E\mathrm{(MeV)}}$ for JUNO experiment to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy. The spectroscopic method can also be used to judge the attribution of the depolarization of other organic solvents used in neutrino experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

A Monte Carlo Method for Rayleigh Scattering in Liquid Detectors

A new Monte Carlo method has been implemented to describe the angular and polarization distributions of anisotropic liquids, like water and linear alkylbenzene, by considering orientational fluctuations of polarizability tensors. The scattered light of anisotropic liquids is depolarized with an angular distribution of $1+(1-\rho_v)/(1+3\rho_v)\cos^2\theta$, which is modified by the depolarization ratio $\rho_v$. A standalone experiment has validated the simulation results of LAB. The new method can provide more accurate knowledge on light propagation in large liquid detectors, which is beneficial to the developments of reconstruction for detectors.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Measurements of Rayleigh Ratios in Linear Alkylbenzene

In present work an experiment has been designed to measure the Rayleigh ratio directly at $405$ nm and $432$ nm for linear alkylbenzene which is a common solvent used in liquid scintillator detectors of neutrino experiments. The perpendicularly polarized Rayleigh ratio is determined to be $(4.52\pm 0.28)\times 10^{-6}$ m$^{-1}\cdot$ sr$^{-1}$ at $405$ nm and $(3.82\pm 0.24)\times 10^{-6}$ m$^{-1}\cdot$ sr$^{-1}$ at $432$ nm, and the corresponding Rayleigh scattering length is $L_{Ray} = 22.9\pm 0.3(\mathrm{stat.})\pm 1.7(\mathrm{sys.})$ m at $405$ nm and $L_{Ray}= 27.0\pm 0.9(\mathrm{stat.})\pm 1.8(\mathrm{sys.})$ m at $432$ nm.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Production of Gadolinium-loaded Liquid Scintillator for the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment

We report on the production and characterization of liquid scintillators for the detection of electron antineutrinos by the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. One hundred eighty-five tons of gadolinium-loaded (0.1% by mass) liquid scintillator (Gd-LS) and two hundred tons of unloaded liquid scintillator (LS) were successfully produced from a linear-alkylbenzene (LAB) solvent in six months. The scintillator properties, the production and purification systems, and the quality assurance and control (QA/QC) procedures are described.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section