Measurement of the gamma ray background in the Davis cavern at the Sanford Underground Research Facility

Deep underground environments are ideal for low background searches due to the attenuation of cosmic rays by passage through the earth. However, they are affected by backgrounds from γ-rays emitted by 40K and the 238U and 232Th decay chains in the surrounding rock. The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment wil...

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Veröffentlicht in:	Astroparticle physics 2020-03, Vol.116 (C)
Hauptverfasser:	Akerib, D. S., Akerlof, C. W., Angelides, N., Araújo, H. M., Bai, X., Boast, K. E., Brás, P., Buckley, J. H., Bugaev, V. V., Carels, C., Carlsmith, D. L., Carmona-Benitez, M. C., Cascella, M., Chan, C., Cole, A., Cutter, J. E., Dobson, J. E. Y., Druszkiewicz, E., Fiorucci, S., Flaecher, H., Fruth, T., Ghag, C., Gokhale, S., van der Grinten, M. G. D., Hall, C. R., Haselschwardt, S. J., Hor, J. Y-K., Horn, M., Ignarra, C. M., Jahangir, O., Ji, W., Johnson, J., Kaboth, A. C., Kamdin, K., Korley, L., Korolkova, E. V., Kraus, H., Kravitz, S. W., Kreczko, L., Krikler, B., Kudryavtsev, V. A., Lesko, K. T., Levy, C., Liao, J., Lindote, A., Liu, R., Liu, X., López Paredes, B., Lorenzon, W., Luitz, S., Lyle, J. M., Manenti, L., Mannino, R. L., Marangou, N., Marzioni, M. F., McKinsey, D. N., McLaughlin, J., Meng, Y., Morad, J. A., Murphy, A. St. J., Naim, D., Naylor, A., Nedlik, C., Nikoleyczik, J., Nilima, A., Olcina, I., Oliver-Mallory, K. C., Pal, S., Palladino, K. J., Pereira, G., Piepke, A., Pushkin, K., Reichenbacher, J., Rhyne, C. A., Riffard, Q., Rosero, R., Rossiter, P., Sazzad, A. B. M. R., Schnee, R. W., Schubnell, M., Seymour, D., Shaw, S., Silk, J. J., Solmaz, M., Solovov, V. N., Sorensen, P., Stancu, I., Stiegler, T. M., Stifter, K., Szydagis, M., Taylor, R., Temples, D., Tiedt, D. R., Tomás, A., Tripathi, M., Tvrznikova, L., Vacheret, A., Webb, R. C., Wolfs, F. L. H., Yin, J.
Format:	Artikel
Sprache:	eng
Schlagworte:	ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS Dark matter Gamma rays Gamma spectroscopy INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Low background PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS Radiation Underground
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Zusammenfassung:	Deep underground environments are ideal for low background searches due to the attenuation of cosmic rays by passage through the earth. However, they are affected by backgrounds from γ-rays emitted by 40K and the 238U and 232Th decay chains in the surrounding rock. The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment will search for dark matter particle interactions with a liquid xenon TPC located within the Davis campus at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota, at the 4850-foot level. In order to characterise the cavern background, in-situ γ-ray measurements were taken with a sodium iodide detector in various locations and with lead shielding. The integral count rates (0–3300 keV) varied from 596 Hz to 1355 Hz for unshielded measurements, corresponding to a total flux from the cavern walls of 1.9±0.4 $γ$ cm-2s-1. The resulting activity in the walls of the cavern can be characterised as 220±60 Bq/kg of 40K, 29±15 Bq/kg of 238U, and 13±3 Bq/kg of 232Th.
ISSN:	0927-6505 1873-2852