Sig.
Juan Antonio Garcia Pascual
(Universidad de Zaragoza)
11/04/13, 15:00
Screening facilities and low background detectors
poster
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.
Manuel Bou-Cabo
(UPV)
11/04/13, 15:00
Screening facilities and low background detectors
poster
The Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics (COUPP) employs bubble chambers to detect WIMP‐nucleus interactions. Acoustic techniques have been successfully used in order to reduce alpha background. In this communication we present our studies to better understand the generation, propagation and detection of acoustic signals in bubble chambers, the simulation tools developed...
Dr.
SUSANA CEBRIAN
(UNIVERSITY OF ZARAGOZA)
11/04/13, 15:00
Low background counting techniques
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Screening facilities and low background detectors
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Overview of global radioactivity measurement facilities
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Screening facilities and low background detectors
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Screening facilities and low background detectors
poster
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)...
Sig.na
Ekaterina Rukhadze
(Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics CTU, Prague)
11/04/13, 15:00
Screening facilities and low background detectors
poster
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...
Sig.
Frédéric Perrot
(CENBG)
11/04/13, 15:00
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Screening facilities and low background detectors
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Background studies, models, and simulations
poster
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...
Rino Persiani
(BO)
11/04/13, 15:00
Background studies, models, and simulations
poster
Fast neutrons from cosmic muons are the ultimate background for any experiments searching for rare events deep underground. The LVD detector, installed at the LNGS, is a multipurpose detector consisting of 1000 t of liquid scintillator and 1000 t of iron.
The main reaction that is detected by LVD is the inverse beta decay which gives two signals: a prompt one due to the e+ followed by the...
Sig.
Fadahat Mamedov
(Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University)
11/04/13, 15:00
Purification/control techniques from radioactive noble gases
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Screening facilities and low background detectors
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Background studies, models, and simulations
poster
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))
11/04/13, 15:00
Low background counting techniques
poster
A new large setup designed to measure low Radon emanation rates will be described.
Sig.
Joshy Mjose
(Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague)
11/04/13, 15:00
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
poster
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.
Stefano Perasso
(APC)
11/04/13, 15:00
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
poster
Electron anti-neutrinos are commonly detected in liquid scintillator experiments via inverse beta decay, by looking at the coincidence between the reaction products, neutron and positron. Prior to positron annihilation, an electron-positron pair may form an orthopositronium (o-Ps) state, with a mean life of a few ns. Even if the o-Ps decay is speeded up by spin flip or pick off effects, it may...
Dr.
Oksana Polishchuk
(ROMA1; Institute for Nuclear Research, Kyiv, Ukraine)
11/04/13, 15:00
Fabrication methods and surface contamination control
poster
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...
Sig.na
Corina Nantais
(Queen's University)
11/04/13, 15:00
Cosmogenic activation and low background techniques in experiments
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Fabrication methods and surface contamination control
poster
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...
Mayisha Nakib
(SMU)
11/04/13, 15:00
Low background counting techniques
poster
Southern Methodist University in Dallas Texas houses one of only five existing UltraLo 1800 production model alpha counters made by XIA LLC. The instrument has an electron drift chamber with a 707 cm^3 or 1800 cm^3 counting region which is determined by selecting the inner electrode size. The SMU team operating this device is part of SuperCDMS screening working group, and uses the alpha...
Sig.
Benjamin Leiber
(Institute for Nuclear Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
11/04/13, 15:00
Background studies, models, and simulations
poster
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)
11/04/13, 15:00
Fabrication methods and surface contamination control
poster
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...
