Low-Energy Radon Backgrounds from Electrode Grids in Dual-Phase Xenon TPCs
High Energy Physics - Experiment
2026-02-25 v1 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract
The dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) is a powerful technology to detect rare interactions such as scatters of dark matter particles on nuclei. In particular, the built-in gain of ionization signals in a dual-phase TPC makes it sensitive to events in the few-electron regime, as expected from low-mass dark matter interactions. The pursuit of this low-energy sensitivity through ionization-only signal detection has so far been hindered by excessive electron backgrounds observed across experiments. Much of this background is attributed to the plate-out of Rn decay chain isotopes on the high voltage electrode grid surfaces that span the full cross section of the TPC. This work presents a first-principle model constructed for this background, the predictions of which are consistent with data from the LZ and LUX experiments. We then discuss mitigation strategies of this background in future dual-phase TPCs and the possibility of applying this grid background model to ionization-only dark matter searches.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.21177,
title = {Low-Energy Radon Backgrounds from Electrode Grids in Dual-Phase Xenon TPCs},
author = {D. S. Akerib and A. K. Al Musalhi and F. Alder and B. J. Almquist and S. Alsum and C. S. Amarasinghe and A. Ames and T. J. Anderson and N. Angelides and H. M. Araújo and J. E. Armstrong and M. Arthurs and X. Bai and A. Baker and J. Balajthy and S. Balashov and J. Bang and J. W. Bargemann and E. E. Barillier and A. Baxter and K. Beattie and T. Benson and E. P. Bernard and A. Bernstein and A. Bhatti and T. P. Biesiadzinski and H. J. Birch and E. Bishop and G. M. Blockinger and E. M. Boulton and B. Boxer and C. A. J. Brew and P. Brás and S. Burdin and D. Byram and M. C. Carmona-Benitez and M. Carter and C. Chan and A. Chawla and H. Chen and Y. T. Chin and N. I. Chott and S. Contreras and M. V. Converse and R. Coronel and A. Cottle and G. Cox and D. Curran and J. E. Cutter and C. E. Dahl and I. Darlington and S. Dave and A. David and J. Delgaudio and S. Dey and L. de Viveiros and L. Di Felice and C. Ding and J. E. Y. Dobson and E. Druszkiewicz and S. Dubey and C. L. Dunbar and S. R. Eriksen and A. Fan and N. M. Fearon and N. Fieldhouse and S. Fiorucci and H. Flaecher and E. D. Fraser and T. M. A. Fruth and P. W. Gaemers and R. J. Gaitskell and A. Geffre and J. Genovesi and C. Ghag and J. Ghamsari and A. Ghosh and S. Ghosh and R. Gibbons and M. G. D. Gilchriese and S. Gokhale and J. Green and M. G. D. van der Grinten and C. Gwilliam and J. J. Haiston and C. R. Hall and T. Hall and R. H Hampp and E. Hartigan-O'Connor and S. J. Haselschwardt and M. A. Hernandez and S. A. Hertel and D. P. Hogan and G. J. Homenides and M. Horn and D. Q. Huang and D. Hunt and C. M. Ignarra and R. G. Jacobsen and E. Jacquet and O. Jahangir and R. S. James and K. Jenkins and W. Ji and A. C. Kaboth and A. C. Kamaha and K. Kamdin and M. K. Kannichankandy and K. Kazkaz and D. Khaitan and A. Khazov and J. Kim and Y. D. Kim and J. Kingston and D. Kodroff and E. V. Korolkova and H. Kraus and S. Kravitz and L. Kreczko and V. A. Kudryavtsev and C. Lawes and E. Leason and D. S. Leonard and K. T. Lesko and C. Levy and J. Liao and J. Lin and A. Lindote and R. Linehan and W. H. Lippincott and J. Long and M. I. Lopes and W. Lorenzon and C. Lu and S. Luitz and W. Ma and V. Mahajan and P. A. Majewski and A. Manalaysay and R. L. Mannino and N. Marangou and R. J. Matheson and C. Maupin and M. E. McCarthy and G. McDowell and D. N. McKinsey and J. McLaughlin and J. B. McLaughlin and R. McMonigle and D. -M. Mei and B. Mitra and E. Mizrachi and M. E. Monzani and K. Morå and J. A. Morad and E. Morrison and B. J. Mount and M. Murdy and A. St. J. Murphy and A. Naylor and C. Nehrkorn and H. N. Nelson and F. Neves and A. Nguyen and A. Nilima and C. L. O'Brien and F. H. O'Shea and I. Olcina and K. C. Oliver-Mallory and J. Orpwood and K. Y Oyulmaz and K. J. Palladino and N. J. Pannifer and N. Parveen and S. J. Patton and B. Penning and G. Pereira and E. Perry and T. Pershing and A. Piepke and S. S. Poudel and Y. Qie and J. Reichenbacher and C. A. Rhyne and Q. Riffard and G. R. C. Rischbieter and E. Ritchey and H. S. Riyat and R. Rosero and P. Rossiter and N. J. Rowe and T. Rushton and D. Rynders and S. Saltão and D. Santone and A. B. M. R. Sazzad and R. W. Schnee and G. Sehr and B. Shafer and S. Shaw and W. Sherman and K. Shi and T. Shutt and C. Silva and G. Sinev and J. Siniscalco and A. M. Slivar and R. Smith and A. M. Softley-Brown and M. Solmaz and V. N. Solovov and P. Sorensen and J. Soria and A. Stevens and T. J. Sumner and A. Swain and N. Swanson 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 M. Timalsina and W. H. To and Z. Tong and D. R. Tovey and J. Tranter and M. Trask and K. Trengove and M. Tripathi and L. Tvrznikova and U. Utku and A. Usón and A. Vacheret and A. C. Vaitkus and O. Valentino and V. Velan and A. Wang and J. J. Wang and Y. Wang and R. C. Webb and L. Weeldreyer and J. T. White and T. J. Whitis and K. Wild and M. Williams and J. Winnicki and M. S. Witherell and L. Wolf and F. L. H. Wolfs and S. Woodford and D. Woodward and C. J. Wright and Q. Xia and X. Xiang and J. Xu and Y. Xu and M. Yeh and D. Yeum and J. Young and W. Zha and C. Zhang and H. Zhang and T. Zhang and Y. Zhou},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.21177},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
16 pages main text, 22 pages overall, 10 figures