Observation of Radon Mitigation in MicroBooNE by a Liquid Argon Filtration System
Abstract
The MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) maintains a high level of liquid argon purity through the use of a filtration system that removes electronegative contaminants in continuously-circulated liquid, recondensed boil off, and externally supplied argon gas. We use the MicroBooNE LArTPC to reconstruct MeV-scale radiological decays. Using this technique we measure the liquid argon filtration system's efficacy at removing radon. This is studied by placing a 500 kBq Rn source upstream of the filters and searching for a time-dependent increase in the number of radiological decays in the LArTPC. In the context of two models for radon mitigation via a liquid argon filtration system, a slowing mechanism and a trapping mechanism, MicroBooNE data supports a radon reduction factor of greater than 99.999% or 97%, respectively. Furthermore, a radiological survey of the filters found that the copper-based filter material was the primary medium that removed the Rn. This is the first observation of radon mitigation in liquid argon with a large-scale copper-based filter and could offer a radon mitigation solution for future large LArTPCs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2203.10147,
title = {Observation of Radon Mitigation in MicroBooNE by a Liquid Argon Filtration System},
author = {MicroBooNE collaboration and P. Abratenko and J. Anthony and L. Arellano and J. Asaadi and A. Ashkenazi and S. Balasubramanian and B. Baller and C. Barnes and G. Barr and J. Barrow and V. Basque and L. Bathe-Peters and O. Benevides Rodrigues and S. Berkman and A. Bhanderi and A. Bhat and M. Bhattacharya and M. Bishai and A. Blake and T. Bolton and J. Y. Book and L. Camilleri and D. Caratelli and I. Caro Terrazas and F. Cavanna and G. Cerati and Y. Chen and D. Cianci and J. M. Conrad and M. Convery and L. Cooper-Troendle and J. I. Crespo-Anadon and M. Del Tutto and S. R. Dennis and P. Detje and A. Devitt and R. Diurba and R. Dorrill and K. Duffy and S. Dytman and B. Eberly and A. Ereditato and J. J. Evans and R. Fine and G. A. Fiorentini Aguirre and R. S. Fitzpatrick and B. T. Fleming and N. Foppiani and D. Franco and A. P. Furmanski and D. Garcia-Gamez and S. Gardiner and G. Ge and S. Gollapinni and O. Goodwin and E. Gramellini and P. Green and H. Greenlee and W. Gu and R. Guenette and P. Guzowski and L. Hagaman and O. Hen and C. Hilgenberg and G. A. Horton-Smith and A. Hourlier and R. Itay and C. James and X. Ji and L. Jiang and J. H. Jo and C. Joe and R. A. Johnson and Y. J. Jwa and D. Kalra and N. Kamp and N. Kaneshige and G. Karagiorgi and W. Ketchum and M. Kirby and T. Kobilarcik and I. Kreslo and I. Lepetic and J. -Y. Li and K. Li and Y. Li and K. Lin and B. R. Littlejohn and W. C. Louis and X. Luo and K. Manivannan and C. Mariani and D. Marsden and J. Marshall and D. A. Martinez Caicedo and K. Mason and A. Mastbaum and N. McConkey and V. Meddage and T. Mettler and K. Miller and J. Mills and K. Mistry and T. Mohayai and A. Mogan and M. Mooney and A. F. Moor and C. D. Moore and L. Mora Lepin and J. Mousseau and S. Mulleria Babu and D. Naples and A. Navrer-Agasson and N. Nayak and M. Nebot-Guinot and R. K. Neely and D. A. Newmark and J. Nowak and M. Nunes and O. Palamara and V. Paolone and A. Papadopoulou and V. Papavassiliou and H. B. Parkinson and S. F. Pate and N. Patel and A. Paudel and Z. Pavlovic and E. Piasetzky and I. Ponce-Pinto and S. Prince and X. Qian and J. L. Raaf and V. Radeka and A. Rafique and M. Reggiani-Guzzo and L. Ren and L. C. J. Rice and L. Rochester and J. Rodriguez Rondon and M. Rosenberg and M. Ross-Lonergan and C. Rudolph von Rohr and G. Scanavini and D. W. Schmitz and A. Schukraft and W. Seligman and M. H. Shaevitz and R. Sharankova and J. Shi and J. Sinclair and A. Smith and E. L. Snider and M. Soderberg and S. Soldner-Rembold and P. Spentzouris and J. Spitz and M. Stancari and J. St. John and T. Strauss and K. Sutton and S. Sword-Fehlberg and A. M. Szelc and W. Tang and K. Terao and C. Thorpe and D. Torbunov and D. Totani and M. Toups and Y. -T. Tsai and M. A. Uchida and T. Usher and B. Viren and M. Weber and H. Wei and A. J. White and Z. Williams and S. Wolbers and T. Wongjirad and M. Wospakrik and K. Wresilo and N. Wright and W. Wu and E. Yandel and T. Yang and G. Yarbrough and L. E. Yates and H. W. Yu and G. P. Zeller and J. Zennamo and C. Zhang and M. Zuckerbrot},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.10147},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
14 pages, 7 figures, accepted by the Journal of Instrumentation