On the energy spectrum of cosmogenic neutrons

Abstract

The processes of the generation of cosmogenic neutrons (cg-neutrons) underground are considered. The neutrons produced by cosmic-ray muons in their interactions with matter are called cosmogenic. Deep-inelastic πA-collisions of pions in muon-induced hadronic showers are mainly their source at energies above 30 MeV. The characteristics of the energy spectrum for the generation of cg-neutrons have been determined by invoking the additive quark model of deep-inelastic soft processes and the mechanism for the interactions of high-energy nucleons in a nucleus. The three-component shape of the spectrum is explained, and the energy of the “knee” in the spectrum has been found to depend on the mass number A. The peculiarities of deep-inelastic πA-scattering lead to the conclusion that the spectrum of cg-neutrons steepens sharply at energies above 1 GeV. The calculated quantitative characteristics of the spectrum are compared with those obtained in measurements.