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An illustration of the KamLAND hall and access tunnels |
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An illustration of the KamLAND detector.
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A drawing of the KamLAND detector components. The balloon is filled
with 1000tons of liquid scintillator and is surrounded by 1879 PMTs
mounted on a steel sphere. The liquid scintillator acts as both the
target and detection volume. The volume between the balloon and the
steel sphere is filled with non-scintillating mineral oil - this acts
as a shield from low radioactivity coming from the surrounding rocks
and the PMTs themselves. Finally, the volume between the steel sphere
and the rock has a third layer, it's filled with water with PMTs
mounted on the cylindrical surface on the outside KamLAND. This final
layer uses Cherenkov radiation to detect muons passing through the
detector. The muons can interact with the material in the central
detector producing background radiation. By knowing exactly when a
muon passes through KamLAND, the detector volume can be vetoed, to
avoid detecting the background.
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