Discovery of underground argon with low level of radioactive 39Ar and possible applications to WIMP dark matter detectors

Acosta-Kane, D.; Acciarri, R.; Amaize, O; Antonello, M.; Baibussinov, B.; Ceolin, M. Baldo; Ballentine, C. J.; Bansal, Richa; Basgall, L.; Bazarko, A.O.; Benetti, P.; Benziger, J.; Burgers, A. P.; Calaprice, F.; Calligarich, E.; Cambiaghi, M.; Canci, N.; Carbonara, F.; Cassidy, Martin; Cavanna, F.; Centro, S.; Chavarría, Á.; Cheng, D.C.; Cocco, A. G.; Collon, P.; Dalnoki‐Veress, F.; Haas, E. de; Pompeo, Francesco; Fiorillo, G.; Fitch, F. J.; Gallo, V.; Galbiati, C.; Gaull, M.; Gazzana, S.; Grandi, L.; Goretti, A.; Highfill, Robert R.; Highfill, T; Hohman, T.; Ianni, A.; Ianni, An.; LaCava, A.; Laubenstein, M.; Lee, H.Y.; Leung, M.; Loer, B.; Loosli, H.H.; Lyons, Brendan; Marks, David; McCarty, K.; Meng, G.; Montanari, C.; Mukhopadhyay, Sujoy; Nelson, A.; Palamara, O.; Pandola, L.; Pietropaolo, F.; Pivonka, T.; Pocar, A.; Purtschert, Roland; Rappoldi, A.; Raselli, G.L.; Resnati, F.; Robertson, D.; Roncadelli, M.; Rossella, M.; Rubbia, C.; Ruderman, Joshua T.; Saldanha, R.; Schmitt, C.; Scott, Robert H.; Segreto, E.; Shirley, Arthur I.; Szelc, A. M.; Tartaglia, R.; Teşileanu, Tiberiu; Ventura, S.; Vignoli, C.; Visnjic, C.; Vondrasek, R.; Yushkov, A.

doi:10.1016/j.nima.2007.12.032

Cited by 57 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…The much lower cost of argon and the relative ease of contaminant purification are the other advantages of liquid argon. Unfortunately, natural atmospheric argon contains the radioisotope 39 Ar, with a specific activity of 1 Bq/kg; sourcing from specific underground sites is required to mitigate against this problem [29].…”

Section: Overview Of Detection Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid noble gas detectors for low energy particle physics

2013

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We review the current status of liquid noble gas radiation detectors with energy threshold in the keV range, which are of interest for direct dark matter searches, measurement of coherent neutrino scattering and other low energy particle physics experiments. Emphasis is given to the operation principles and the most important instrumentation aspects of these detectors, principally of those operated in the double-phase mode. Recent technological advances and relevant developments in photon detection and charge readout are discussed in the context of their applicability to those experiments.

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Section: Overview Of Detection Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid noble gas detectors for low energy particle physics

2013

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“…The proposed method adds enhanced capability of determining the time scales of these processes and fluid migration, which is critical for risk assessments. Finally, subsurface sources of Ar with the lowest possible radioactivity (i.e., lowest 39 Ar abundance) are indispensable to liquid argon detectors used in searches for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs, Acosta-Kane et al, 2008). Our geochemical model suggests the conditions under which such fluids may be found are within old reservoir rocks with low neutron flux (regardless of K concentration), especially those that only recently started to lose Ar to the fluid or released it at low rate of Ar loss over long periods of time.…”

Section: Potential Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of crustal fluid residence times using nucleogenic 39Ar

Yokochi

Sturchio

Purtschert

2012

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

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“…Direct spectroscopic data for liquid neon and liquid helium are hard to obtain. Q-value: 565 keV), argon from special sub-surface sources about a factor of 20 less [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ion-beam excitation of liquid argon

et al. 2013

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The scintillation light of liquid argon has been recorded wavelength and time resolved with very good statistics in a wavelength interval ranging from 118 nm through 970 nm. Three different ion beams, protons, sulfur ions and gold ions, were used to excite liquid argon. Only minor differences were observed in the wavelengthspectra obtained with the different incident particles. Light emission in the wavelength range of the third excimer continuum was found to be strongly suppressed in the liquid phase. In time-resolved measurements, the time structure of the scintillation light can be directly attributed to wavelength in our studies, as no wavelength shifter has been used. These measurements confirm that the singlet-to-triplet intensity ratio in the second excimer continuum range is a useful parameter for particle discrimination, which can also be employed in wavelength-integrated measurements as long as the sensitivity of the detector system does not rise steeply for wavelengths longer than 190 nm. Using our values for the singlet-to-triplet ratio down to low energies deposited a discrimination threshold between incident protons and sulfur ions as low as ∼2.5 keV seems possible, which represents the principle limit for the discrimination of these two species in liquid argon.

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Discovery of underground argon with low level of radioactive 39Ar and possible applications to WIMP dark matter detectors

Cited by 57 publications

References 25 publications

Liquid noble gas detectors for low energy particle physics

Liquid noble gas detectors for low energy particle physics

Determination of crustal fluid residence times using nucleogenic 39Ar

Ion-beam excitation of liquid argon

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