A low background facility inside the LVD detector at Gran Sasso

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of a low-background inner region within the LVD detector at Gran Sasso, enhancing its capability to search for rare events like dark matter and double beta decay.

Contribution

It introduces the LVD Core Facility, a low-background region inside LVD, enabling sensitive rare event searches with minimal impact on existing operations.

Findings

The LVD can serve as both shield and active veto for background reduction.

A 30m³ low-background region can be created inside LVD.

Potential for rare event detection like double beta decay and dark matter.

Abstract

The Large Volume Detector (LVD) in the Gran Sasso Laboratory of INFN is an observatory mainly devoted to search for neutrinos from core collapse supernovae. It consists of 1000 tons of liquid scintillator divided in 840 stainless steel tanks 1.5m$^3$ each. In this letter we present the possibility for LVD to work both as a passive shield and moderator for the low energy gamma and neutron background and as an active veto for muons and higher energy neutrons. An inner region inside the LVD structure ("LVD Core Facility") can be identified, with a volume of about 30m$^3$, with the neutron background typical of an underground laboratory placed at a much deeper site. This region can be realized with a negligible impact on the LVD operation and sensitive mass. The LVD Core Facility could be effectively exploited by a compact experiment for the search of rare events, such as double beta decay or dark matter.