Results from a calibration of XENON100 using a source of dissolved radon-220Show others and affiliations
Number of Authors: 120
2017 (English)In: Physical Review D: covering particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology, ISSN 2470-0010, E-ISSN 2470-0029, Vol. 95, no 7, 072008Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
A Rn-220 source is deployed on the XENON100 dark matter detector in order to address the challenges in calibration of tonne-scale liquid noble element detectors. We show that the Pb-212 beta emission can be used for low-energy electronic recoil calibration in searches for dark matter. The isotope spreads throughout the entire active region of the detector, and its activity naturally decays below background level within a week after the source is closed. We find no increase in the activity of the troublesome Rn-222 background after calibration. Alpha emitters are also distributed throughout the detector and facilitate calibration of its response to Rn-222. Using the delayed coincidence of Rn-220-Po-216, we map for the first time the convective motion of particles in the XENON100 detector. Additionally, we make a competitive measurement of the half-life of Po-212, t(1/2) = (293.9 +/- (1.0)(stat) +/- (0.6)(sys)) ns.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2017. Vol. 95, no 7, 072008
National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-143476DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.95.072008ISI: 000399945500001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-143476DiVA: diva2:1102721
2017-05-302017-05-302017-05-30Bibliographically approved