Investigation of background electron emission in the LUX detector
Abstract
Dual-phase xenon detectors, as currently used in direct detection dark matter experiments, have observed elevated rates of background electron events in the low energy region. While this background negatively impacts detector performance in various ways, its origins have only been partially studied. In this paper we report a systematic investigation of the electron pathologies observed in the LUX dark matter experiment. We characterize different electron populations based on their emission intensities and their correlations with preceding energy depositions in the detector. By studying the background under different experimental conditions, we identified the leading emission mechanisms, including photoionization and the photoelectric effect induced by the xenon luminescence, delayed emission of electrons trapped under the liquid surface, capture and release of drifting electrons by impurities, and grid electron emission. We discuss how these backgrounds can be mitigated in LUX and future xenon-based dark matter experiments.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2004.07791,
title = {Investigation of background electron emission in the LUX detector},
author = {D. S. Akerib and S. Alsum and H. M. Araújo and X. Bai and J. Balajthy and A. Baxter and E. P. Bernard and A. Bernstein and T. P. Biesiadzinski and E. M. Boulton and B. Boxer and P. Brás and S. Burdin and D. Byram and M. C. Carmona-Benitez and C. Chan and J. E. Cutter and L. de Viveiros and E. Druszkiewicz and A. Fan and S. Fiorucci and R. J. Gaitskell and C. Ghag and M. G. D. Gilchriese and C. Gwilliam and C. R. Hall and S. J. Haselschwardt and S. A. Hertel and D. P. Hogan and M. Horn and D. Q. Huang and C. M. Ignarra and R. G. Jacobsen and O. Jahangir and W. Ji and K. Kamdin and K. Kazkaz and D. Khaitan and E. V. Korolkova and S. Kravitz and V. A. Kudryavtsev and E. Leason and B. G. Lenardo and K. T. Lesko and J. Liao and J. Lin and A. Lindote and M. I. Lopes and A. Manalaysay and R. L. Mannino and N. Marangou and D. N. McKinsey and D. M. Mei and M. Moongweluwan and J. A. Morad and A. St. J. Murphy and A. Naylor and C. Nehrkorn and H. N. Nelson and F. Neves and A. Nilima and K. C. Oliver-Mallory and K. J. Palladino and E. K. Pease and Q. Riffard and G. R. C. Rischbieter and C. Rhyne and P. Rossiter and S. Shaw and T. A. Shutt and C. Silva and M. Solmaz and V. N. Solovov and P. Sorensen and T. J. Sumner and M. Szydagis and D. J. Taylor and R. Taylor and W. C. Taylor and B. P. Tennyson and P. A. Terman and D. R. Tiedt and W. H. To and L. Tvrznikova and U. Utku and S. Uvarov and A. Vacheret and V. Velan and R. C. Webb and J. T. White and T. J. Whitis and M. S. Witherell and F. L. H. Wolfs and D. Woodward and J. Xu and C. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.07791},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
17 pages, 13 figures