Measurement of radon-induced backgrounds in the NEXT double beta decay experiment
Abstract
The measurement of the internal Rn activity in the NEXT-White detector during the so-called Run-II period with Xe-depleted xenon is discussed in detail, together with its implications for double beta decay searches in NEXT. The activity is measured through the alpha production rate induced in the fiducial volume by Rn and its alpha-emitting progeny. The specific activity is measured to be ~mBq/m. Radon-induced electrons have also been characterized from the decay of the Bi daughter ions plating out on the cathode of the time projection chamber. From our studies, we conclude that radon-induced backgrounds are sufficiently low to enable a successful NEXT-100 physics program, as the projected rate contribution should not exceed 0.1~counts/yr in the neutrinoless double beta decay sample.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1804.00471,
title = {Measurement of radon-induced backgrounds in the NEXT double beta decay experiment},
author = {NEXT Collaboration and P. Novella and B. Palmeiro and A. Simón and M. Sorel and C. Adams and P. Ferrario and G. Martínez-Lema and F. Monrabal and G. Zuzel and J. J. Gómez-Cadenas and V. Álvarez and L. Arazi and C. D. R Azevedo and K. Bailey and F. Ballester and J. M. Benlloch-Rodríguez and F. I. G. M. Borges and A. Botas and S. Cárcel and J. V. Carrión and S. Cebrián and C. A. N. Conde and J. Díaz and M. Diesburg and J. Escada and R. Esteve and R. Felkai and A. F. M. Fernandes and L. M. P. Fernandes and A. L. Ferreira and E. D. C. Freitas and J. Generowicz and A. Goldschmidt and D. González-Díaz and R. Guenette and R. M. Gutiérrez and K. Hafidi and J. Hauptman and C. A. O. Henriques and A. I. Hernandez and J. A. Hernando Morata and V. Herrero and S. Johnston and B. J. P. Jones and M. Kekic and L. Labarga and A. Laing and P. Lebrun and N. López-March and M. Losada and R. D. P. Mano and J. Martín-Albo and A. Martínez and A. McDonald and C. M. B. Monteiro and F. J. Mora and J. Muñoz Vidal and M. Musti and M. Nebot-Guinot and D. R. Nygren and A. Para and J. Pérez and F. Psihas and M. Querol and J. Renner and J. Repond and S. Riordan and L. Ripoll and J. Rodríguez and L. Rogers and C. Romo-Luque and F. P. Santos and J. M. F. dos Santos and C. Sofka and T. Stiegler and J. F. Toledo and J. Torrent and J. F. C. A. Veloso and R. Webb and J. T. White and N. Yahlali},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.00471},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
28 pages, 10 figures, 6 tables. Version accepted for publication in JHEP