Role of ν-induced reactions on lead and iron in neutrino detectors -: art. no. 025802

We have calculated cross sections and branching ratios for neutrino-induced reactions on Pb-208 and Fe-56 for various supernova and accelerator-relevant neutrino spectra. This was motivated by the facts that lead and iron will be used on the one hand as target materials in future neutrino detectors and, on the other hand, have been and are still used as shielding materials in accelerator-based experiments. In particular we study the inclusive Fe-56(nu (e),e(-))Co-56 and Pb-208(nu (e),e(-))Bi-208 cross sections and calculate the neutron energy spectra following the decay of the daughter nuclei. These reactions give a potential background signal in the KARMEN and LSND experiment and are discussed as a detection scheme for supernova neutrinos in the proposed OMNIS and LAND detectors. We also study the neutron emission following the neutrino-induced neutral-current excitation of Fe-56 and Pb-208.