The neutron background of the XENON100 dark matter experiment
Abstract
The XENON100 experiment, installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), aims to directly detect dark matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their elastic scattering off xenon nuclei. This paper presents a study on the nuclear recoil background of the experiment, taking into account neutron backgrounds from (,n) and spontaneous fission reactions due to natural radioactivity in the detector and shield materials, as well as muon-induced neutrons. Based on Monte Carlo simulations and using measured radioactive contaminations of all detector components, we predict the nuclear recoil backgrounds for the WIMP search results published by the XENON100 experiment in 2011 and 2012, 0.11 events and 0.17 events, respectively, and conclude that they do not limit the sensitivity of the experiment.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1306.2303,
title = {The neutron background of the XENON100 dark matter experiment},
author = {E. Aprile and M. Alfonsi and K. Arisaka and F. Arneodo and C. Balan and L. Baudis and B. Bauermeister and A. Behrens and P. Beltrame and K. Bokeloh and A. Brown and E. Brown and G. Bruno and R. Budnik and J. M. R. Cardoso and W. -T. Chen and B. Choi and A. P. Colijn and H. Contreras and J. P. Cussonneau and M. P. Decowski and E. Duchovni and S. Fattori and A. D. Ferella and W. Fulgione and F. Gao and M. Garbini and C. Ghag and K. -L. Giboni and L. W. Goetzke and C. Grignon and E. Gross and W. Hampel and F. Kaether and A. Kish and J. Lamblin and H. Landsman and R. F. Lang and M. Le Calloch and C. Levy and K. E. Lim and Q. Lin and S. Lindemann and M. Lindner and J. A. M. Lopes and K. Lung and T. Marrodan Undagoitia and F. V. Massoli and A. J. Melgarejo Fernandez and Y. Meng and M. Messina and A. Molinario and K. Ni and U. Oberlack and S. E. A. Orrigo and E. Pantic and R. Persiani and G. Plante and N. Priel and A. Rizzo and S. Rosendahl and J. M. F. dos Santos and G. Sartorelli and J. Schreiner and M. Schumann and L. ScottoLavina and P. R. Scovell and M. Selvi and P. Shagin and H. Simgen and A. Teymourian and D. Thers and E. Tziaferi and O. Vitells and H. Wang and M. Weber and C. Weinheimer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.2303},
year = {2015}
}