Low-Radioactivity Argon for Rare-Event Searches

Conference · Tue Sep 05 04:00:00 EDT 2023

OSTI ID:2332932

Sharma Poudel, Sagar ^[1]; Loer, Ben M. ^[1]; Saldanha, Richard N. ^[1]; Back, Henning O. ^[1]; Hackett, Brianne R. ^[1]

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1. BATTELLE (PACIFIC NW LAB)

39Ar and 42Ar produce irreducible backgrounds for several argon-based dark matter and neutrino experiments. The use of low-radioactivity underground argon (UAr) could be a solution to the problem. The DarkSide-50 experiment demonstrated that argon derived from underground sources can contain a much lower concentration of 39Ar than atmospheric argon. Following this success, the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration (GADMC) is procuring hundreds of tons of UAr for the DarkSide-20k detector. To serve the broader community need, it is increasingly important to identify new sources of low-radioactivity argon. In addition, understanding the underground production mechanisms of argon radioisotopes and devising methods to measure them at ultra-low levels is necessary. The use of low-radioactivity argon could be crucial to expanding the physics goals and sensitivity of next-generation large-scale argon-based experiments.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 2332932
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-176852
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

Radioargon isotopes
Underground argon
Isotope production
Dark matter
Neutrino