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Title: First measurement of surface nuclear recoil background for argon dark matter searches

Journal Article · · Physical Review D
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Department of Physics
  2. Queen's Univ., Kingston, ON (Canada). Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here, one major background in direct searches for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) comes from the deposition of radon progeny on detector surfaces. A dangerous surface background is the 206Pb nuclear recoils produced by 210Po decays. In this paper, we report the first characterization of this background in liquid argon. The scintillation signal of low energy Pb recoils is measured to be highly quenched in argon, and we estimate that the 103 keV 206Pb recoil background will produce a signal equal to that of a ~5 keV (30 keV) electron recoil (40Ar recoil). In addition, we demonstrate that this dangerous 210Po surface background can be suppressed, using pulse shape discrimination methods, by a factor of ~100 or higher, which can make argon dark matter detectors near background-free and enhance their potential for discovery of medium- and high-mass WIMPs. Lastly, we also discuss the impact on other low background experiments.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1426118
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1392729
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-703423; PRVDAQ; TRN: US1802222
Journal Information:
Physical Review D, Vol. 96, Issue 6; ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 3 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS