Published March 20, 2024
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Measurement of ambient radon progeny decay rates and energy spectra in liquid argon using the MicroBooNE detector
Creators
- Abratenko, P.1
- Alterkait, O.1
- Andrade Aldana, D.2
- Arellano, L.3
- Assadi, J.4
- Ashkenazi, A.5
- Balsubramanian, S.6
- Baller, B.6
- Barr, G.7
- Barrow, D.8
- Barrow, J.8
- Basque, V.6
- Benevides Rodrigues, O.2
- Berkman, S.6
- Bhanderi, A.3
- Bhat, A.9
- Bhattacharya, M.6
- Bishai, M.10
- Blake, A.11
- Ereditato, A.9
- Fleming, B. T.9
- Franco, D.9
- Hagaman, L.9
- Miller, K.9
- Schmitz, D. W.9
- White, A. J.9
- 1. Tufts University
- 2. Illinois Institute of Technology
- 3. University of Manchester
- 4. University of Texas
- 5. Tel Aviv University
- 6. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
- 7. University of Oxford
- 8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 9. University of Chicago
- 10. Brookhaven National Laboratory
- 11. Lancaster University
Description
We report measurements of radon progeny in liquid argon within the MicroBooNE time projection chamber (LArTPC). The presence of specific radon daughters in MicroBooNE's 85 metric tons of active liquid argon bulk is probed with newly developed charge-based low-energy reconstruction tools and analysis techniques to detect correlated $^{214}Bi−^{214}Po$ radioactive decays. Special datasets taken during periods of active radon doping enable new demonstrations of the calorimetric capabilities of single-phase neutrino LArTPCs for $𝛽$ and $𝛼$ particles with electron-equivalent energies ranging from 0.1 to 3.0 MeV. By applying $^{214}Bi−^{214}Po$ detection algorithms to data recorded over a 46-day period, no statistically significant presence of radioactive $^214_Bi$ is detected, and a limit on the activity is placed at $<0.35 mBq/kg$ at the 95% confidence level. This bulk $^214Bi$ radiopurity limit—the first ever reported for a liquid argon detector incorporating liquid-phase purification—is then further discussed in relation to the targeted upper limit of $1 mBq/kg$ on bulk $^222Rn$ activity for the DUNE neutrino detector.
Notes
Due to the large number of authors, only the first 20 and the University of Chicago authors are included on the above author list. Please download the article for the complete list of authors.
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PhysRevD.109.052007.pdf
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Additional details
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1103/PhysRevD.109.052007
- Other
- oai:uchicago.tind.io:13024
Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy
- DE-AC02-07CH11359
- National Science Foundation
- Swiss National Science Foundation
- United Kingdom Research and Innovation
- Royal Society
- UK Research and Innovation
- Future Leaders Fellowship
- Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics