Long-term study of backgrounds in the DRIFT-II directional dark matter experiment
Abstract
Low-pressure gas Time Projection Chambers being developed for directional dark matter searches offer a technology with strong particle identification capability combined with the potential to produce a definitive detection of Galactic Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) dark matter. A source of events able to mimic genuine WIMP-induced nuclear recoil tracks arises in such experiments from the decay of radon gas inside the vacuum vessel. The recoils that result from associated daughter nuclei are termed Radon Progeny Recoils (RPRs). We present here experimental data from a long-term study using the DRIFT-II directional dark matter experiment at the Boulby Underground Laboratory of the RPRs, and other backgrounds that are revealed by relaxing the normal cuts that are applied to WIMP search data. By detailed examination of event classes in both spatial and time coordinates using 5.5 years of data, we demonstrate the ability to determine the origin of 4 specific background populations and describe development of new technology and mitigation strategies to suppress them.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1307.5525,
title = {Long-term study of backgrounds in the DRIFT-II directional dark matter experiment},
author = {J. Brack and E. Daw and A. Dorofeev and A. C. Ezeribe and J. R. Fox and J. -L. Gauvreau and M. Gold and L. J. Harmon and J. Harton and R. Lafler and J. M. Landers and R. Lauer and E. R. Lee and D. Loomba and J. A. J. Matthews and E. H. Miller and A. Monte and A. StJ. Murphy and S. M. Paling and N. Phan and M. Pipe and M. Robinson and S. Sadler and A. Scarff and D. P. Snowden-Ifft and N. J. C. Spooner and S. Telfer and D. Walker and L. Yuriev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.5525},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
15 pages, 12 figures. To be published in JINST. This paper replaces the one entitled "Radon backgrounds in the DRIFT-II directional dark matter experiments", which was withdrawn to address some scientific and editorial issues