Dr
Tony Noble
(Queen's University and SNOLAB)
10/04/2013, 09:30
oral presentation
Matthias Laubenstein
(INFN - LNGS)
10/04/2013, 09:55
oral presentation
Dr
Gerd Heusser
(Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik)
10/04/2013, 10:20
Screening facilities and low background detectors
oral presentation
A new germanium gamma spectrometer (GIOVE) has been added to the screening facility of the MPI for Nuclear Physics to meet the needs for material selection for the double beta and dark matter projects Gerda Phase II [1] and XENON 1T [2]. It bridges the gap in sensitivity between the GeMPI spectrometers at LNGS [3, 4] and the older generation low background spectrometers at the Heidelberg low...
Thomas Langford
(University of Maryland)
10/04/2013, 10:40
Screening facilities and low background detectors
oral presentation
The University of Maryland and National Institute of Technology developed
the Fast Neutron Spectrometers (FaNS) as high efficiency, full-energy
reconstructing, neutron detectors. The first generation, FaNS-1, consisted of 18 liters of plastic scintillator, separated in six optically decoupled segments, and six $^3$He proportional counters. The detector operated under the principle of...
Dr
Ian Lawson
(SNOLAB)
10/04/2013, 11:30
Screening facilities and low background detectors
oral presentation
Many of the experiments currently searching for dark matter, studying properties of neutrinos or searching for neutrinoless double beta decay require very low levels of radioactive backgrounds both in their own construction materials and in the surrounding environment. These low background levels are required so that the experiments can achieve the required sensitivities for their searches....
Keenan Thomas
(UC Berkeley- Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, LBNL - NSD)
10/04/2013, 11:50
Screening facilities and low background detectors
oral presentation
The Low Background Facility (LBF) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California operates in two unique facilities—locally within a carefully-constructed, low background cave; and remotely at an underground location (~500 m.w.e) nearby in Oroville, CA. These facilities provide a variety of gamma spectroscopy services to low background experiments primarily in the form of...
Dr
SUSANA CEBRIAN
(UNIVERSITY OF ZARAGOZA)
10/04/2013, 12:10
An extensive screening and material selection process is underway in the construction of the “Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC” (NEXT), intended to investigate neutrinoless double beta decay using a high-pressure xenon gas TPC filled with 100 kg of Xe enriched in 136Xe. Determination of the radiopurity levels of the materials is based on gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background...
Dr
Robert Nelson
(Caltech)
10/04/2013, 12:30
The BetaCage is a proposed neon time-projection chamber for the ultra-sensitive screening of materials for alpha- and beta-emitting surface contaminants. The BetaCage is of interest to rare-event-search experiments (e.g. dark matter searches and neutrino less double-beta decay) where surface contaminations from the implantation of the products from radon decays are a substantial background. ...
Dr
Francisco Jose Iguaz Gutierrez
(University of Zaragoza)
10/04/2013, 12:50
The observation of the neutrinoless double beta decay may provide essential information on the nature of neutrinos. Among the current experimental approaches, a high pressure gaseous TPC is an attractive option for the search of double beta decay due to its good energy resolution and the detailed topological information of each event. We present in this talk a detailed study of the ionization...
Werner Maneschg
(Max Planck Institut fuer Kernphysik)
10/04/2013, 13:10
The low background GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso is designed to search for the rare neutrino-less double beta decay (0vbb) in 76Ge. Bare germanium diodes are operated in liquid argon that is used as coolant, as passive and soon active as well shield against external radiation. Currently, Phase I of the experiment is running using ~15 kg of co-axial...
Eric Hoppe
(Pacific Northwest National Laboratories)
10/04/2013, 15:00
An increasing number of physics experiments require low background materials for their construction. The presence of Uranium and Thorium and their progeny in these materials present a variety of unwanted background sources for these experiments. The sensitivity of the experiments continues to drive the necessary levels of detection ever lower as well. This requirement for greater...
Stefano Nisi
(INFN - LNGS)
10/04/2013, 15:20
Screening facilities and low background detectors
oral presentation
The assembly of physics experiments searching for rare events involves the selection
of highly radio-pure materials. The possibility to measure natural radioactivity
(potassium, thorium and uranium) in a wide range of materials and with the best
available sensitivity is of basic importance in this field of research. Inductively
coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP MS) allows the direct...
Andreas Zimbal
(Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB))
10/04/2013, 15:40
We report on low-level measuring techniques for neutrons that have been developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the German National Metrology Institute. PTB operates well characterized neutron reference fields which are available for experiments and calibration activities and is involved in the development of new detectors and measurement techniques for neutron...
Dr
Oleg Chkvorets
(Laurentian University)
10/04/2013, 16:00
oral presentation
Dr
Luca Maria Pattavina
(Milano Bicocca University)
10/04/2013, 16:25
Fabrication methods and surface contamination control
oral presentation
In neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches, one of the main issues is to increase the experimental sensitivity through careful material selection and production, minimizing the background contributions. In order to achieve the required, extremely low, counting rates, very stringent requirements must be fulfilled in terms of bulk material radio-purity. As the experimental...
Dr
Hiroshi Ogawa
(Institute for Cosmic Ray Research University of Tokyo)
10/04/2013, 17:15
Fabrication methods and surface contamination control
oral presentation
An 800kg liquid xenon detector (XMASS) was constructed in Kamioka laboratory, Japan in 2010, and a commissioning run was conducted from November 2010 to June 2012. Although we have achieved the design level of internal backgrounds, it was found that surface contamination is the major contribution of the remaining background. The origins of the surface background have been extensively...
Dr
Chris Jillings
(SNOLAB/Laurentian University)
10/04/2013, 17:35
Fabrication methods and surface contamination control
oral presentation
DEAP-3600 is a 3600kg single-phase liquid-argon dark matter detector
under construction at SNOLAB. The argon is held an an acrylic vessel
which is optically transparent at the shifted wavelength of 420 nm; an
effective neutron shield; and physically strong.
Because the acrylic (Poly Methyl MethAcrylate) is in contact with the liquid argon it can be a source of alpha-induced backgrounds....
Dr
HECTOR GOMEZ
(Laboratoire de l'Accélérateur Linéaire (LAL-Orsay))
10/04/2013, 17:55
Fabrication methods and surface contamination control
oral presentation
New generation experiments in Astroparticle Physics need to operate in really restrictive background conditions, which implies the use of high radiopure materials for the experimental setup construction. For this reason the screening of the materials with enough sensitivity has become a challenge that sometimes cannot be afforded with standard techniques like Germanium detector...
Prof.
Priscilla Cushman
(University of Minnesota)
10/04/2013, 18:15
Overview of global radioactivity measurement facilities
oral presentation
The AARM (Assay and Acquisition of Radiopure Materials) collaboration was established for the purpose of designing a low background user facility at DUSEL. Over the last four years, it has been successful in uniting dark matter and double beta decay experiments around common issues of assay, simulation tools, and experimental validation of the physics processes underlying simulations. I will...
Dr
James Loach
(Shanghai Jiaotong University)
10/04/2013, 18:35
Overview of global radioactivity measurement facilities
oral presentation
The physics community possesses a wealth of knowledge on the radiopurity of materials, which has been acquired laboriously during the design and construction of generations of ultra-low background experiments. To the extent that this information has been shared, it has been done so through databases of limited scope or availability, through publications and through informal exchanges. The aim...
Dr
Hardy Simgen
(MPIK - Heidelberg)
11/04/2013, 09:05
oral presentation
Mr
Sebastian Lindemann
(Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik)
11/04/2013, 09:30
Purification/control techniques from radioactive noble gases
oral presentation
Natural krypton contains the long-lived β-decaying isotope 85Kr which
represents for liquid xenon detectors looking for low-energetic, rare events a dangerous source of background. Within the scope of the XENON experiments we developed a dedicated tool based on mass-spectrometry to assay the krypton concentration in small xenon samples at the ppt-level.
In my talk I will shortly review the...
Florian Fraenkle
(Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
11/04/2013, 09:50
Purification/control techniques from radioactive noble gases
oral presentation
The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is a large-scale experiment for the model independent determination of the mass of electron anti-neutrinos with a sensitivity of 200 meV/c^2. It investigates the kinematics of electrons from tritium beta decay close to the endpoint of the energy spectrum. Low statistics at the endpoint requires an equally low background rate below 10^-2...
Prof.
Jose Busto
(CPPM / SuperNEMO Collaboration)
11/04/2013, 10:10
Purification/control techniques from radioactive noble gases
oral presentation
The background from the Radon decay chain is the strongest constraint for many experiments working at low energy and very low counting rate in particle and astroparticle physics. Classically, activated charcoal filters are used to dynamically capture the radon from the air or from the gas of the detectors. The activated charcoal has large effective surface and broad porosity, going from macro...
Prof.
Richard Schnee
(Syracuse University)
11/04/2013, 10:30
Purification/control techniques from radioactive noble gases
oral presentation
In order to reduce backgrounds from radon-daughter plate-out onto the wires of the BetaCage during its assembly, an ultra-low-radon cleanroom is being commissioned at Syracuse University. Air sampling measurements taken before connecting the vacuum-swing-adsorption radon mitigation system demonstrate the effectiveness of air circulation through standard HEPA filters at reducing the...
Dr
SUSANA CEBRIAN
(UNIVERSITY OF ZARAGOZA)
11/04/2013, 11:20
Dr
Manuel Bou-Cabo
(UPV)
11/04/2013, 11:45
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
oral presentation
The nature of non‐baryonic dark matter (DM) is one of the most intriguing questions for particle physics at the start of the 21st century. The Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics (COUPP) employs a CF3I bubble chamber to search for WIMP‐nucleus elastic scattering events. In this communication we show the plans, status and results of COUPP in the different bubble chamber...
Dr
Xavier-François NAVICK
(CEA de Saclay)
11/04/2013, 12:05
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
oral presentation
In dark matter WIMP searches the neutron shielding plays a crucial role in attenuating neutron flux and hence, suppressing nuclear recoil event rate - one of the key background mimicking WIMP interactions. The transition from EDELWEISS-II to EDELWEISS-III with 40 detectors with increased mass and improved background rejection has required the modification of the neutron shielding.
In this...
Mr
James Mott
(UCL)
11/04/2013, 12:25
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
oral presentation
The SuperNEMO experiment will search for 0νββ with a target half-life sensitivity of 10^26 years, corresponding to an effective neutrino mass of 50 - 100 meV.
At its heart there is a low-background gaseous tracking detector which allows for extremely efficient background rejection and, if 0νββ is observed, may provide important insights into the mechanism via which it may be...
Mrs
Neslihan Becerici-Schmidt
(MSc. Physics)
11/04/2013, 12:45
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
oral presentation
The GERDA experiment at LNGS searches for the neutrinoless double beta (0nubb) decay of Ge-76. HPGe detectors made from germanium enriched in Ge-76 are directly immersed in liquid argon, serving as shield against external radiation and as a cooling medium simultaneously. A significant reduction of the background compared to previous experiments is achieved in the first phase of the experiment....
Dr
Alexander Chepurnov
(Moscow State University), Dr
Yury Suvorov
(Ucla & INFN - LNGS)
11/04/2013, 13:05
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
oral presentation
Due to the large mass of the cryostats, containment tanks, passive shielding, and other mechanical parts of the modern low background detectors, requirements on their radiopurity are typically stringent. In this regard, the material radiopurity has to be less then 1 mBq/kg of U238 / Th232, which means that mass concentration should be < 0.1 ppb for U and < 0.25 ppb for Th.
Traditionally,...
Mr
Juan Antonio Garcia Pascual
(Universidad de Zaragoza)
11/04/2013, 15:00
The 222Rn emanation has significant contribution in the overall background for rare event searches experiment, in order to measure this emanations a high sensitivity detector have been designed with the aim of a minimum detectable activity of 100 μBq. The detection method is the electrostatic collection of the 222Rn daughters on a Micromegas detector. Using a chamber with a volume of 21.2 l...
Dr
SUSANA CEBRIAN
(UNIVERSITY OF ZARAGOZA)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Several large NaI(Tl) detectors, produced by different companies, have been operated in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) in the frame of the ANAIS (Annual modulation with NaI Scintillators) project devoted to the direct detection of dark matter.
For those detectors, activities from the natural chains of 238U and 232Th and 40K in the NaI(Tl) crystals have been evaluated....
Dr
Allen Seifert
(Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
11/04/2013, 15:00
A new ultra-low-background proportional counter (ULBPC) design was recently developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) using clean materials, primarily electrochemically-purified copper. This detector, along with an ultra-low-background counting system (ULBCS), has been developed to complement a new shallow underground laboratory (30 meters water-equivalent) constructed at PNNL....
Dr
James Loach
(LBNL/Majorana), Dr
Jodi Cooley
(Southern Methodist University)
11/04/2013, 15:00
The physics community has a wealth of knowledge about the radiopurity of materials used to design and construct experiments requiring ultra-low backgrounds which is shared through various databases, publications and informally. The aim of this Community Material Assay Database is to consolidate these data into a single concise and comprehensive central repository, and to provide a robust...
Dr
GUILHEM DOUYSSET
(CEA)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Identification and quantification of minute quantities of fission/activation products in environmental samples is often of primary importance for the characterization of radiological events in various fields: nuclear power plant accidents, detection of clandestine nuclear tests in the framework of CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty), nuclear forensics... Sensitivity of conventional...
Dr
Erica Andreotti
(Universitat Tubingen)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Erica Andreotti for the GERDA BEGe acceptance test group
In the course of 2012, a facility for fast screening of germanium detectors called HEROICA (Hades Experimental Research Of Intrinsic Crystal Appliances) has been installed at the HADES underground laboratory in the premises of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre SCK.CEN, in Mol (Belgium).
The HEROICA facility allows the determination...
Emily Mace
(Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Characterization of two sets of custom unequal length proportional counters is underway at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). These detectors will be used in measurements to determine the absolute activity concentration of gaseous radionuclides (e.g., 37Ar). A set of three detectors has been fabricated based on previous PNNL ultra-low-background proportional counters (ULBPC)...
Ms
Ekaterina Rukhadze
(Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics CTU, Prague)
11/04/2013, 15:00
To search for double beta decay processes to the excited states of daughter nuclei, such as resonant 0νEC/EC decay of 106Cd (TGV experiment) and 2ν2β- decay of 100Mo (NEMO-3 experiment) to the 0+ (1130 keV) and 2+ (540 keV) excited states of 100Ru, a low background HPGe spectrometer Obelix with sensitive volume of 600 cm3 and efficiency of ~160% was installed at the Modane Underground...
Mr
Frédéric Perrot
(CENBG)
11/04/2013, 15:00
This talk will give an overview of all the low background techniques used in the SuperNEMO collaboration to build a "zero-background" demonstrator module.
Dr
Martin Hofmann
(TU Munich),
Moritz v. Sivers
(Technische Universität München)
11/04/2013, 15:00
We present two screening setups located in the Garching Underground Lab at a shallow depth of 10 m.w.e. One screening station consists of a 150% efficiency HPGe detector surrounded by an anti-Compton veto made of a NaI(Tl) scintillation detector. In addition, a passive lead shielding, a N2 flushed box and muon veto panels complete the setup.
With this setup we reach sensitivities down to 1...
Dr
Valentin Kozlov
(Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Due to a very low event rate expected in direct Dark Matter search experiments, a good understanding of every background component is crucial. Muon-induced neutrons constitute a prominent background, since neutrons lead to nuclear recoils and thus can mimic a potential Dark Matter signal. Edelweiss is a Ge-bolometer experiment searching for WIMP dark matter. It is located in the Laboratoire...
Mr
Fadahat Mamedov
(Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Group of IEAP CTU in Prague is for a long time involved in radon detection in the frame of SupereNEMO experiment. The sensitive radon detector of hemispherical shape with the volume of 50 litres has been constructed and tested (measurement of efficiency, 30%, and measurement of background, 11±1 events/day in the energy region of 6.2-7.8 MeV peak of 214Po). The detection limit of the apparatus...
Dr
Anthony Villano
(University of Minnesota)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Soudan Underground Laboratory houses a large muon veto shield lining the Soudan-II proton decay
experimental cavern. Since the Soudan-II detector has been removed the shield has undergone a
refurbishment which allows detection and tracking of through-going muons in the 30x17x12 m cavern.
Further, this veto shield can be used in conjunction with other experiments housed within its...
Vincente Guiseppe
(University of South Dakota)
11/04/2013, 15:00
The next generation low-background detectors operating deep underground aim for unprecedented low levels of radioactive backgrounds. The surface deposition and subsequent implantation of radon progeny in detector materials will be a source of energetic background events. We investigate Monte Carlo and model-based simulations to understand the surface implantation profile of radon progeny....
Benjamin Soulé
(Centre d'études nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan (CENBG))
11/04/2013, 15:00
A new large setup designed to measure low Radon emanation rates will be described.
Mr
Joshy Mjose
(Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Double beta decay experiments are challenging frontiers in contemporary physics. These experiments have the potential to investigate more about neutrinos (eg. nature and mass). The main challenge for these experiments is the reduction of background. The group at IEAP, CTU in Prague is investigating a new approach using pixel detectors Timepix. Pixel detector offer background reduction...
Dr
Oksana Polishchuk
(ROMA1; Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv, Ukraine)
11/04/2013, 15:00
There are many potentially double beta active isotopes among the lanthanide elements (136Ce, 138Ce, 142Ce, 146Nd, 148Nd, 150Nd, 144Sm, 154Sm, 152Gd, 160Gd, 156Dy, 158Dy, 162Er, 164Er, 170Er, 168Yb, 176Yb). However, even the high purity grade (99.99% - 99.995%) lanthanide compounds contain typically uranium and thorium on the level of ~ (0.1 - 1) Bq/kg. We present results of chemical...
Ms
Corina Nantais
(Queen's University)
11/04/2013, 15:00
The spherical acrylic vessel that contains the liquid argon target is the most critical component in the DEAP-3600 dark matter experiment. Alpha decays near the inner surface of the acrylic vessel are one of the main sources of background in the detector. A fraction of the alpha energy, or the recoiling nucleus from the alpha decay, could misreconstruct in the fiducial volume and result in a...
Prof.
Richard Schnee
(Syracuse University)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Long-lived alpha and beta emitters in the Rn-222 decay chain on detector surfaces may be the limiting background in many experiments attempting to detect dark matter or neutrinoless double beta decay. Removal of tens of microns of material via electropolishing has been shown to be effective at removing radon daughters implanted into material surfaces. Some applications, however, require the...
Mr
Benjamin Leiber
(Institute for Nuclear Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
11/04/2013, 15:00
The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino (KATRIN) experiment is a large scale experiment for the model independent determination of the mass of electron anti-neutrinos with a sensitivity of 200 meV/c^2. It investigates the kinematics of electrons from tritium beta decay close to the endpoint of the energy spectrum at 18.6 keV. Low statistics at the endpoint requires an equally low background rate below...
Dr
Raymond Bunker
(Syracuse University)
11/04/2013, 15:00
Material screening for identifying low-energy electron emitters and alpha-decaying isotopes is now a prerequisite for rare-event searches (e.g., dark-matter direct detection and neutrinoless double-beta decay) for which surface radiocontamination has become an increasingly important background. The BetaCage, a gaseous neon time-projection chamber, is a proposed ultra-sensitive (and...
Maria Antonella Incicchitti
(INFN Roma)
12/04/2013, 09:00
Prof.
Frank Calaprice
(Princeton University)
12/04/2013, 09:25
Low background purification and growth techniques for liquids and solids
oral presentation
Dr
Haruo Ikeda
(Research Center for Neutrino Science, Tohoku University)
12/04/2013, 09:50
Dr
Fedor Danevich
(Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv, Ukraine)
12/04/2013, 10:15
Low background purification and growth techniques for liquids and solids
oral presentation
Cadmium tungstate crystal scintillators enriched in 106Cd up to 66% (106CdWO4) and 116Cd up to 82% (116CdWO4) have been developed to investigate double beta processes in 106Cd and 116Cd. The metal samples of the enriched cadmium were purified by heating with filtration in combination with distillation through getter filters. The cadmium tungstate compounds were synthesized from solutions by...
Mr
Krzysztof Pelczar
(Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University)
12/04/2013, 10:35
Low background purification and growth techniques for liquids and solids
oral presentation
Presently cryogenic liquids are extensively used in experiments looking for
rare nuclear events at low energies, for which the main issue is reduction of background. One of its most important sources may be intrinsic radioactive impurities of the cryogenic gas. A method to investigate properties of the short-lived Rn-222 daughters present in liquid nitrogen will be presented. Since they are...
Marco Giulio Giammarchi
(MI)
12/04/2013, 10:55
Low background purification and growth techniques for liquids and solids
oral presentation
Water is used in the Borexino Solar Neutrino Experiment as a shielding against external gamma radiation, as well as a medium to be used in purification processes and cleaning of various part of the equipment.
The Borexino Water Purification System uses normal fresh Water (10^-3 Bq/kg of U-238,Th-232,K-40, 0.3 Bq/kg of Ra-226 and 10 Bq/kg of Rn-222) and makes use of various purification...
Marco Selvi
(INFN Bologna)
12/04/2013, 11:45
oral presentation
Ms
Lea Reichhart
(University of Edinburgh)
12/04/2013, 12:10
Background studies, models, and simulations
oral presentation
Rare signal searches, such as those performed for direct dark matter detection and neutrinoless double beta decay experiments, are typically carried out in deep underground laboratories, with the consequence that the rock over-burden of such facilities dramatically reduces many of the background signals that would be present if the experiments were conducted in surface laboratories. As...
Dr
Jodi Cooley
(SMU)
12/04/2013, 12:30
Background studies, models, and simulations
oral presentation
Rejection and protection from backgrounds is a key issue for the next generation SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment which will have a cross-section sensitivity of 9^-46 cm^2 for spin-independent WIMP-nucleon interactions. We have identified 210Pb as the dominant source of electromagnetic background seen in our detectors through a study that correlates the alpha and beta particles resulting from...
Dr
Anthony Villano
(University of Minnesota)
12/04/2013, 12:50
Background studies, models, and simulations
oral presentation
The two leading simulation frameworks used for the simulation of cosmic ray muons underground
are Geant4 and FLUKA. There have been in the past various questions raised as to the equivalence of
these codes regarding cosmogenically produced neutrons and radioactivity in an underground environment.
Many experiments choose one of these frameworks and because they typically have different...