Expected Performance of NeuLAND in FAIR Phase 0

At least 13 out of the planned 30 double planes of the New Large Area Neutron Detector NeuLAND will be available for the R³B experiment in FAIR Phase 0. Here we present an overview about the progress in simulations, reconstruction, and the expected performance of this startup version. The original multi-neutron multiplicity recognition depends on the calorimetric properties of the full detector. Simulations have shown that the separation of the individual neutron multiplicities is heavily affected by the reduced detector depth, which subsequently affects the interaction point reconstruction. We have developed a method based on scoring hit patterns to find the primary neutron interaction points, working around this limitation. This method can suppress secondary hits (false positives) with high precision at the expense of efficiency.