51. Measurement of the Gamma Ray Background in the Davis Cavern at the Sanford Underground Research Facility
- Author
-
Akerib, D. S., Akerlof, C. W., Alsum, S. K., Angelides, N., Araújo, H. M., Armstrong, J. E., Arthurs, M., Bai, X., Balajthy, J., Balashov, S., Baxter, A., Bernard, E. P., Biekert, A., Biesiadzinski, T. P., Boast, K. E., Boxer, B., Brás, P., Buckley, J. H., Bugaev, V. V., Burdin, S., Busenitz, J. K., Carels, C., Carlsmith, D. L., Carmona-Benitez, M. C., Cascella, M., Chan, C., Cole, A., Cottle, A., Cutter, J. E., Dahl, C. E., de Viveiros, L., Dobson, J. E. Y., Druszkiewicz, E., Edberg, T. K., Fan, A., Fiorucci, S., Flaecher, H., Fruth, T., Gaitskell, R. J., Genovesi, J., Ghag, C., Gilchriese, M. G. D., Gokhale, S., van der Grinten, M. G. D., Hall, C. R., Hans, S., Harrison, J., Haselschwardt, S. J., Hertel, S. A., Hor, J. Y-K., Horn, M., Huang, D. Q., Ignarra, C. M., Jahangir, O., Ji, W., Johnson, J., Kaboth, A. C., Kamdin, K., Khaitan, D., Khazov, A., Kim, W. T., Kocher, C. D., Korley, L., Korolkova, E. V., Kras, J., Kraus, H., Kravitz, S. W., Kreczko, L., Krikler, B., Kudryavtsev, V. A., Leason, E. A., Lee, J., Leonard, D. S., Lesko, K. T., Levy, C., Li, J., Liao, J., Liao, F. -T., Lin, J., Lindote, A., Linehan, R., Lippincott, W. H., Liu, R., Liu, X., Loniewski, C., Lopes, M. I., Paredes, B. López, Lorenzon, W., Luitz, S., Lyle, J. M., Majewski, P. A., Manalaysay, A., Manenti, L., Mannino, R. L., Marangou, N., Marzioni, M. F., McKinsey, D. N., McLaughlin, J., Meng, Y., Miller, E. H., Monzani, M. E., Morad, J. A., Morrison, E., Mount, B. J., Murphy, A. St. J., Naim, D., Naylor, A., Nedlik, C., Nehrkorn, C., Nelson, H. N., Neves, F., Nikoleyczik, J., Nilima, A., Olcina, I., Oliver-Mallory, K. C., Pal, S., Palladino, K. J., Pease, E. K., Penning, B. P., Pereira, G., Piepke, A., Pushkin, K., Reichenbacher, J., Rhyne, C. A., Riffard, Q., Rischbieter, G. R. C., Rodrigues, J. P., Rosero, R., Rossiter, P., Rutherford, G., Sazzad, A. B. M. R., Schnee, R. W., Schubnell, M., Scovell, P. R., Seymour, D., Shaw, S., Shutt, T. A., Silk, J. J., Silva, C., Solmaz, M., Solovov, V. N., Sorensen, P., Stancu, I., Stevens, A., Stiegler, T. M., Stifter, K., Szydagis, M., Taylor, W. C., Taylor, R., Temples, D., Terman, P. A., Tiedt, D. R., Timalsina, M., Tomás, A, Tripathi, M., Tvrznikova, L., Utku, U., Uvarov, S., Vacheret, A., Wang, J. J., Watson, J. R., Webb, R. C., White, R. G., Whitis, T. J., Wolfs, F. L. H., Woodward, D., and Yin, J.
- Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors ,High Energy Physics - Experiment - Abstract
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 $\gamma$-rays emitted by $^{40}$K and the $^{238}$U and $^{232}$Th 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 4,850-foot level. In order to characterise the cavern background, in-situ $\gamma$-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 in the cavern of $1.9\pm0.4$~$\gamma~$cm$^{-2}$s$^{-1}$. The resulting activity in the walls of the cavern can be characterised as $220\pm60$~Bq/kg of $^{40}$K, $29\pm15$~Bq/kg of $^{238}$U, and $13\pm3$~Bq/kg of $^{232}$Th., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF