Production of X-rays by cosmic-ray muons in heavily shielded gamma-ray spectrometers

Cosmic-ray (CR) muons both directly and indirectly contribute to the spectra of heavily shielded High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors, even in deep underground laboratories. Heavy elements are frequently used as the detector components or are occasionally placed close to the detector endcap, and their characteristic X-rays induced by cosmic-ray muons contribute to the low-energy region of the HPGe detector spectra. We study the production of X-rays in tungsten, gold and lead by cosmic-ray muons on the ground level, by means of a coincidence system consisting of a plastic scintillation detector and an extended range HPGe detector placed inside a 12-cm-thick lead shield. In this typical low-background arrangement, the shield with total mass of 725 kg acts as a source of secondary particles induced by CR muons. X-rays that originate from direct interactions of muons with the target material, the yield of which may be reliably estimated by Monte Carlo simulations, are excluded by this experimental setup, and only X-rays of W, Pb and Au samples produced by all secondaries from muon interactions with the lead shield are present in the HPGe spectra. The production rate of Kα X-rays per unit mass of all the elements studied (74<Z<82) is found to be close to 7×10−4 g−1 s−1. This corresponds to a high effective cross-section for this production of 17(3) barns. Unexpectedly, the results do not show any significant dependence on Z in the Z=74–82 region.