Benchmarking the particle background in the large hadron collider experiments

Background benchmarking measurements have been made to check the low-energy processes which will contribute via nuclear reactions to the radiation background in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments at CERN. Previously these processes were only evaluated with Monte Carlo simulations, estimated to be reliable within an uncertainty factor of 2.5. Measurements were carried out in an experimental set-up comparable to the shielding of ATLAS, one of the general purpose experiments at LHC. The absolute yield and spectral measurements of photons and neutrons emanating from the final stages of the hadronic showers were made with a Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) detector. The particle transport code FLUKA was used for detailed simulations. Comparison between measurements and simulations show that they agree within 20% and hence the uncertainty factor resulting from the shower processes can be reduced to a factor of 1.2.