English

Design and Performance of the XENON10 Dark Matter Experiment

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2011-04-25 v1 Astrophysics of Galaxies

Abstract

XENON10 is the first two-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) developed within the XENON dark matter search program. The TPC, with an active liquid xenon (LXe) mass of about 14 kg, was installed at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS) in Italy, and operated for more than one year, with excellent stability and performance. Results from a dark matter search with XENON10 have been published elsewhere. In this paper, we summarize the design and performance of the detector and its subsystems, based on calibration data using sources of gamma-rays and neutrons as well as background and Monte Carlo simulations data. The results on the detector's energy threshold, energy and position resolution, and overall efficiency show a performance that exceeds design specifications, in view of the very low energy threshold achieved (<10 keVr) and the excellent energy resolution achieved by combining the ionization and scintillation signals, detected simultaneously.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1001.2834,
  title  = {Design and Performance of the XENON10 Dark Matter Experiment},
  author = {E. Aprile and J. Angle and F. Arneodo and L. Baudis and A. Bernstein and A. Bolozdynya and P. Brusov and L. C. C. Coelho and C. E. Dahl and L. DeViveiros and A. D. Ferella and L. M. P. Fernandes and S. Fiorucci and R. J. Gaitskell and K. L. Giboni and R. Gomez and R. Hasty and L. Kastens and J. Kwong and J. A. M. Lopes and N. Madden and A. Manalaysay and A. Manzur and D. N. McKinsey and M. E. Monzani and K. Ni and U. Oberlack and J. Orboeck and D. Orlandi and G. Plante and R. Santorelli and J. M. F. dos Santos and P. Shagin and T. Shutt and P. Sorensen and S. Schulte and E. Tatananni and C. Winant and M. Yamashita},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1001.2834},
  year   = {2011}
}