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Start Over Author "Daugherty, S." Topic physics - instrumentation and detectors
32 results on '"Daugherty, S."'

1. Relative Measurement and Extrapolation of the Scintillation Quenching Factor of $\alpha$-Particles in Liquid Argon using DEAP-3600 Data

Author

The DEAP Collaboration, Adhikari, P., Alpízar-Venegas, M., Amaudruz, P. -A., Anstey, J., Auty, D. J., Batygov, M., Beltran, B., Bina, C. E., Bonivento, W., Boulay, M. G., Bueno, J. F., Cai, B., Cárdenas-Montes, M., Choudhary, S., Cleveland, B. T., Crampton, R., Daugherty, S., DelGobbo, P., Di Stefano, P., Dolganov, G., Doria, L., Duncan, F. A., Dunford, M., Ellingwood, E., Erlandson, A., Farahani, S. S., Fatemighomi, N., Fiorillo, G., Ford, R. J., Gahan, D., Gallacher, D., Abia, P. García, Garg, S., Giampa, P., Giménez-Alcázar, A., Goeldi, D., Gorel, P., Graham, K., Hallin, A. L., Hamstra, M., Haskins, S., Hu, J., Hucker, J., Hugues, T., Ilyasov, A., Jigmeddorj, B., Jillings, C. J., Kaur, G., Kemp, A., Kuźniak, M., La Zia, F., Lai, M., Langrock, S., Lehnert, B., Levashko, N., Lissia, M., Luzzi, L., Machulin, I., Maru, A., Mason, J., McDonald, A. B., McElroy, T., McLaughlin, J. B., Mielnichuk, C., Mirasola, L., Monroe, J., Ng, C., Oliviéro, G., Pal, S., Papi, D., Perry, M., Pesudo, V., Pollmann, T. R., Rad, F., Rethmeier, C., Retière, F., Roszkowski, L., Santorelli, R., Schuckman II, F. G., Seth, S., Shalamova, V., Skensved, P., Smirnova, T., Sobotkiewich, K., Sonley, T., Sosiak, J., Soukup, J., Stainforth, R., Stringer, M., Tang, J., Vázquez-Jáuregui, E., Viel, S., Vyas, B., Walczak, M., Walding, J., Ward, M., and Westerdale, S.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

The knowledge of scintillation quenching of $\alpha$-particles plays a paramount role in understanding $\alpha$-induced backgrounds and improving the sensitivity of liquid argon-based direct detection of dark matter experiments. We performed a relative measurement of scintillation quenching in the MeV energy region using radioactive isotopes ($^{222}$Rn, $^{218}$Po and $^{214}$Po isotopes) present in trace amounts in the DEAP-3600 detector and quantified the uncertainty of extrapolating the quenching factor to the low-energy region., Comment: Submitted to Eur. Phys. J. C

Published
2024

2. Generative Adversarial Networks for Scintillation Signal Simulation in EXO-200

Author

Li, S., Ostrovskiy, I., Li, Z., Yang, L., Kharusi, S. Al, Anton, G., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bhatta, T., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Echevers, J., Fairbank Jr., W., Fairbank, D., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fu, Y. S., Fudenberg, D., Gautam, P., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Hansen, E. V., Hoessl, J., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jessiman, C., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Koffas, T., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Larson, A., Lenardo, B. G., Leonard, D. S., Li, G. S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., McElroy, T., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Njoya, O., Nusair, O., Odian, A., Perna, A., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Retière, F., Robinson, A. L., Rowson, P. C., Runge, J., Schmidt, S., Sinclair, D., Skarpaas, K., Soma, A. K., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Thibado, S., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Totev, T. I., and Tsang, R.

Subjects
High Energy Physics - Experiment, Computer Science - Machine Learning, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

Generative Adversarial Networks trained on samples of simulated or actual events have been proposed as a way of generating large simulated datasets at a reduced computational cost. In this work, a novel approach to perform the simulation of photodetector signals from the time projection chamber of the EXO-200 experiment is demonstrated. The method is based on a Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Network - a deep learning technique allowing for implicit non-parametric estimation of the population distribution for a given set of objects. Our network is trained on real calibration data using raw scintillation waveforms as input. We find that it is able to produce high-quality simulated waveforms an order of magnitude faster than the traditional simulation approach and, importantly, generalize from the training sample and discern salient high-level features of the data. In particular, the network correctly deduces position dependency of scintillation light response in the detector and correctly recognizes dead photodetector channels. The network output is then integrated into the EXO-200 analysis framework to show that the standard EXO-200 reconstruction routine processes the simulated waveforms to produce energy distributions comparable to that of real waveforms. Finally, the remaining discrepancies and potential ways to improve the approach further are highlighted., Comment: As accepted by JINST

Published
2023
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3. The EXO-200 detector, part II: Auxiliary Systems

Author

Ackerman, N., Albert, J., Auger, M., Auty, D. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Bartoszek, L., Baussan, E., Belov, V., Benitez-Medina, C., Bhatta, T., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Conley, R., Cook, S., Coon, M., Craddock, W., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Daniels, T., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Davis, C. G., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., deVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Dobi, A., Dolgolenko, A. G., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Echevers, J., Espic, L., Fairbank Jr., W., Fairbank, D., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fouts, K., Franco, D., Freytag, D., Fudenberg, D., Gautam, P., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hagemann, C., Hall, C., Hall, K., Haller, G., Hansen, E. V., Hargrove, C., Herbst, R., Herrin, S., Hodgson, J., Hughes, M., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jessiman, C., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Larson, A., Leonard, D. S., Leonard, F., LePort, F., Li, G. S., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Mackay, D., MacLellan, R., Marino, M., Martin, J. -M., Martin, Y., McElroy, T., McFarlane, K., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Neilson, R., Njoya, O., Nusair, O., O'Sullivan, K., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Ouellet, C., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Pushkin, K., Retiere, F., Rivas, A., Robinson, A. L., Rollin, E., Rowson, P. C., Rozo, M. P., Runge, J., Russell, J. J., Schmidt, S., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Skarpaas, K., Slutsky, S., Smith, E., Soma, A. K., Stekhanov, V., Strickland, V., Swift, M., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Tosi, D., Totev, T. I., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Veenstra, B., Veeraraghavan, V., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Vuilleumier, J. -M., Wagenpfeil, M., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Wamba, K., Watkins, J., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wittgen, M., Wodin, J., Wood, J., Wrede, G., Wu, S. X., Xia, Q., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya, and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

The EXO-200 experiment searched for neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{136}$Xe with a single-phase liquid xenon detector. It used an active mass of 110 kg of 80.6%-enriched liquid xenon in an ultra-low background time projection chamber with ionization and scintillation detection and readout. This paper describes the design and performance of the various support systems necessary for detector operation, including cryogenics, xenon handling, and controls. Novel features of the system were driven by the need to protect the thin-walled detector chamber containing the liquid xenon, to achieve high chemical purity of the Xe, and to maintain thermal uniformity across the detector., Comment: Manuscript updated in response to JINST reviewer comments

Published
2021
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4. Pulseshape discrimination against low-energy Ar-39 beta decays in liquid argon with 4.5 tonne-years of DEAP-3600 data

Author

The DEAP Collaboration, Adhikari, P., Ajaj, R., Alpízar-Venegas, M., Amaudruz, P. -A., Auty, D. J., Batygov, M., Beltran, B., Benmansour, H., Bina, C. E., Bonatt, J., Bonivento, W., Boulay, M. G., Broerman, B., Bueno, J. F., Burghardt, P. M., Butcher, A., Cadeddu, M., Cai, B., Cárdenas-Montes, M., Cavuoti, S., Chen, M., Chen, Y., Cleveland, B. T., Corning, J. M., Cranshaw, D., Daugherty, S., DelGobbo, P., Dering, K., DiGioseffo, J., Di Stefano, P., Doria, L., Duncan, F. A., Dunford, M., Ellingwood, E., Erlandson, A., Farahani, S. S., Fatemighomi, N., Fiorillo, G., Florian, S., Flower, T., Ford, R. J., Gagnon, R., Gallacher, D., Abia, P. García, Garg, S., Giampa, P., Goeldi, D., Golovko, V., Gorel, P., Graham, K., Grant, D. R., Grobov, A., Hallin, A. L., Hamstra, M., Harvey, P. J., Hearns, C., Hugues, T., Ilyasov, A., Joy, A., Jigmeddorj, B., Jillings, C. J., Kamaev, O., Kaur, G., Kemp, A., Kochanek, I., Kuźniak, M., Lai, M., Langrock, S., Lehnert, B., Leonhardt, A., Levashko, N., Li, X., Lidgard, J., Lindner, T., Lissia, M., Lock, J., Longo, G., Machulin, I., McDonald, A. B., McElroy, T., McGinn, T., McLaughlin, J. B., Mehdiyev, R., Mielnichuk, C., Monroe, J., Nadeau, P., Nantais, C., Ng, C., Noble, A. J., O'Dwyer, E., Oliviéro, G., Ouellet, C., Pal, S., Pasuthip, P., Peeters, S. J. M., Perry, M., Pesudo, V., Picciau, E., Piro, M. -C., Pollmann, T. R., Rand, E. T., Rethmeier, C., Retière, F., Rodríguez-García, I., Roszkowski, L., Ruhland, J. B., Sánchez-García, E., Santorelli, R., Sinclair, D., Skensved, P., Smith, B., Smith, N. J. T., Sonley, T., Soukup, J., Stainforth, R., Stone, C., Strickland, V., Stringer, M., Sur, B., Tang, J., Vázquez-Jáuregui, E., Viel, S., Walding, J., Waqar, M., Ward, M., Westerdale, S., Willis, J., and Zuñiga-Reyes, A.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Abstract

The DEAP-3600 detector searches for the scintillation signal from dark matter particles scattering on a 3.3 tonne liquid argon target. The largest background comes from $^{39}$Ar beta decays and is suppressed using pulseshape discrimination (PSD). We use two types of PSD algorithm: the prompt-fraction, which considers the fraction of the scintillation signal in a narrow and a wide time window around the event peak, and the log-likelihood-ratio, which compares the observed photon arrival times to a signal and a background model. We furthermore use two algorithms to determine the number of photons detected at a given time: (1) simply dividing the charge of each PMT pulse by the charge of a single photoelectron, and (2) a likelihood analysis that considers the probability to detect a certain number of photons at a given time, based on a model for the scintillation pulseshape and for afterpulsing in the light detectors. The prompt-fraction performs approximately as well as the log-likelihood-ratio PSD algorithm if the photon detection times are not biased by detector effects. We explain this result using a model for the information carried by scintillation photons as a function of the time when they are detected., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures

Published
2021
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5. Measurements of electron transport in liquid and gas Xenon using a laser-driven photocathode

Author

Njoya, O., Tsang, T., Tarka, M., Fairbank, W., Kumar, K. S., Rao, T., Wager, T., Kharusi, S. Al, Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bhatta, T., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Caden, E., Cao, G. F., Cao, L., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Chana, B., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Dalmasson, J., Daniels, T., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Croix, A. De St., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Di Vacri, M. L., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Echevers, J., Elbeltagi, M., Fabris, L., Fairbank, D., Farine, J., Ferrara, S., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fontaine, R., Fucarino, A., Gallina, G., Gautam, P., Giacomini, G., Goeldi, D., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hansen, E. V., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., Hossl, J., House, A., Hughes, M., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Kodroff, D., Koffas, T., Krucken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Lan, Y., Larson, A., Leach, K. G., Lenardo, B. G., Leonard, D. S., Li, G., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Lv, P., MacLellan, R., McElroy, T., Medina-Peregrina, M., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Nakarmi, P., Natzke, C. R., Newby, R. J., Ning, Z., Nolet, F., Nusair, O., Odgers, K., Odian, A., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Ortega, G. S., Ostrovskiy, I., Overman, C. T., Parent, S., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Pratte, J. -F., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rescia, S., Retiere, F., Richman, M., Robinson, A., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Runge, J., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., VIII, K. Skarpaas, Soma, A. K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Sun, X. L., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Totev, T. I., Tsang, R., Vachon, F., Veeraraghavan, V., Viel, S., Visser, G., Vivo-Vilches, C., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Walent, M., Wang, Q., Ward, M., Watkins, J., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Wu, X., Xia, Q., Yang, H., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zhao, J., Zhou, Y., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

Measurements of electron drift properties in liquid and gaseous xenon are reported. The electrons are generated by the photoelectric effect in a semi-transparent gold photocathode driven in transmission mode with a pulsed ultraviolet laser. The charges drift and diffuse in a small chamber at various electric fields and a fixed drift distance of 2.0 cm. At an electric field of 0.5 kV/cm, the measured drift velocities and corresponding temperature coefficients respectively are $1.97 \pm 0.04$ mm/$\mu$s and $(-0.69\pm0.05)$\%/K for liquid xenon, and $1.42 \pm 0.03$ mm/$\mu$s and $(+0.11\pm0.01)$\%/K for gaseous xenon at 1.5 bar. In addition, we measure longitudinal diffusion coefficients of $25.7 \pm 4.6$ cm$^2$/s and $149 \pm 23$ cm$^2$/s, for liquid and gas, respectively. The quantum efficiency of the gold photocathode is studied at the photon energy of 4.73 eV in liquid and gaseous xenon, and vacuum. These charge transport properties and the behavior of photocathodes in a xenon environment are important in designing and calibrating future large scale noble liquid detectors.

Published
2019
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6. Measurement of the scintillation and ionization response of liquid xenon at MeV energies in the EXO-200 experiment

Author

Collaboration, EXO-200, Anton, G., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bhatta, T., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Echevers, J., Fairbank Jr., W., Fairbank, D., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Gautam, P., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Hansen, E. V., Hoessl, J., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jessiman, C., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Koffas, T., Krucken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Larson, A., Lenardo, B. G., Leonard, D. S., Li, G. S., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., McElroy, T., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Neilson, R., Njoya, O., Nusair, O., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Retiere, F., Robinson, A. L., Rowson, P. C., Runge, J., Schmidt, S., Sinclair, D., Soma, A. K., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Tosi, D., Totev, T. I., Veenstra, B., Veeraraghavan, V., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Watkins, J., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Wu, S. X., Xia, Q., Yahne, D. R., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya., and Ziegle, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

Liquid xenon (LXe) is employed in a number of current and future detectors for rare event searches. We use the EXO-200 experimental data to measure the absolute scintillation and ionization yields generated by $\gamma$ interactions from $^{228}$Th (2615~keV), $^{226}$Ra (1764~keV) and $^{60}$Co (1332~keV and 1173~keV) calibration sources, over a range of electric fields. The $W$-value that defines the recombination-independent energy scale is measured to be $11.5~\pm~0.5$~(syst.)~$\pm~0.1$~(stat.) eV. These data are also used to measure the recombination fluctuations in the number of electrons and photons produced by the calibration sources at the MeV-scale, which deviate from extrapolations of lower-energy data. Additionally, a semi-empirical model for the energy resolution of the detector is developed, which is used to constrain the recombination efficiency, i.e., the fraction of recombined electrons that result in the emission of a detectable photon. Detailed measurements of the absolute charge and light yields for MeV-scale electron recoils are important for predicting the performance of future neutrinoless double beta decay detectors.

Published
2019
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7. Simulation of charge readout with segmented tiles in nEXO

Author

Li, Z., Cen, W. R., Robinson, A., Moore, D. C., Wen, L. J., Odian, A., Kharusi, S. Al, Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bhatta, T., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Caden, E., Cao, G. F., Cao, L., Chambers, C., Chana, B., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Dalmasson, J., Daniels, T., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Croix, A. De St., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Di Vacri, M. L., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Echevers, J., Elbeltagi, M., Fabris, L., Fairbank, D., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Ferrara, S., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fontaine, R., Fucarino, A., Gallina, G., Gautam, P., Giacomini, G., Goeldi, D., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hansen, E. V., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., Hößl, J., House, A., Hughes, M., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Kodroff, D., Koffas, T., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Larson, A., Leach, K. G., Lenardo, B. G., Leonard, D. S., Li, G., Li, S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Lv, P., MacLellan, R., McElroy, T., Medina-Peregrina, M., Michel, T., Mong, B., Murray, K., Nakarmi, P., Natzke, C. R., Newby, R. J., Ning, Z., Njoya, O., Nolet, F., Nusair, O., Odgers, K., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Ortega, G. S., Ostrovskiy, I., Overman, C. T., Parent, S., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Pratte, J. -F., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rescia, S., Retière, F., Richman, M., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Runge, J., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., VIII, K. Skarpaas, Soma, A. K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Sun, X. L., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Totev, T. I., Tsang, R., Tsang, T., Vachon, F., Veeraraghavan, V., Viel, S., Visser, G., Vivo-Vilches, C., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Walent, M., Wang, Q., Ward, M., Watkins, J., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wichoski, U., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Wu, X., Xia, Q., Yang, H., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zhao, J., Zhou, Y., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

nEXO is a proposed experiment to search for the neutrino-less double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) of $^{136}$Xe in a tonne-scale liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC). The nEXO TPC will be equipped with charge collection tiles to form the anode. In this work, the charge reconstruction performance of this anode design is studied with a dedicated simulation package. A multi-variate method and a deep neural network are developed to distinguish simulated $0\nu\beta\beta$ signals from backgrounds arising from trace levels of natural radioactivity in the detector materials. These simulations indicate that the nEXO TPC with charge-collection tiles shows promising capability to discriminate the $0\nu\beta\beta$ signal from backgrounds. The estimated half-life sensitivity for $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay is improved by $\sim$20$~(32)\%$ with the multi-variate~(deep neural network) methods considered here, relative to the sensitivity estimated in the nEXO pre-conceptual design report.

Published
2019
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8. Characterization of the Hamamatsu VUV4 MPPCs for nEXO

Author

Gallina, G., Giampa, P., Retiere, F., Kroeger, J., Zhang, G., Ward, M., Margetak, P., Lic, G., Tsang, T., Doria, L., Kharusi, S. Al, Alfaris, M., Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bhatta, T., Blatchford, J., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Cao, L., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Dalmasson, J., Daniels, T., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Croix, A. De St., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Echevers, J., Elbeltagi, M., Fabris, L., Fairbank, D., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fontaine, R., Gautam, P., Giacomini, G., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hansen, E. V., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., Hoßl, J., House, A., Hughes, M., Ito, Y., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Kodroff, D., Koffas, T., Krucken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lana, Y., Larson, A., Lenardo, B. G., Leonarda, D. S., Lik, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Linw, Y. H., Lv, P., MacLellan, R., McElroy, T., Medina-Peregrina, M., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Nakarmi, P., Newby, R. J., Ning, Z., Njoya, O., Nolet, F., Nusair, O., Odgers, K., Odian, A., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Ortega, G. S., Ostrovskiy, I., Overman, C. T., Parent, S., Piepkez, A., Pocar, A., Pratte, J. -F., Qiu, D., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rescia, S., Richman, M., Robinson, A., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., VIII, K. Skarpaas, Soma, A. K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Sun, X. L., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Totev, T. I., Tsang, R., Vachon, F., Veeraraghavan, V., Visser, G., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Walent, M., Wang, Q., Watkins, J., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Wu, X., Xia, Q., Yang, H., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zhao, J., Zhou, Y., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

In this paper we report on the characterization of the Hamamatsu VUV4 (S/N: S13370-6152) Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) sensitive Silicon Photo-Multipliers (SiPMs) as part of the development of a solution for the detection of liquid xenon scintillation light for the nEXO experiment. Various SiPM features, such as: dark noise, gain, correlated avalanches, direct crosstalk and Photon Detection Efficiency (PDE) were measured in a dedicated setup at TRIUMF. SiPMs were characterized in the range $163 \text{ } \text{K} \leq \text{T}\leq 233 \text{ } \text{K}$. At an over voltage of $3.1\pm0.2$ V and at $\text{T}=163 \text{ }\text{K}$ we report a number of Correlated Avalanches (CAs) per pulse in the $1 \upmu\text{s}$ interval following the trigger pulse of $0.161\pm0.005$. At the same settings the Dark-Noise (DN) rate is $0.137\pm0.002 \text{ Hz/mm}^{2}$. Both the number of CAs and the DN rate are within nEXO specifications. The PDE of the Hamamatsu VUV4 was measured for two different devices at $\text{T}=233 \text{ }\text{K}$ for a mean wavelength of $189\pm7\text{ nm}$. At $3.6\pm0.2$ V and $3.5\pm0.2$ V of over voltage we report a PDE of $13.4\pm2.6\text{ }\%$ and $11\pm2\%$, corresponding to a saturation PDE of $14.8\pm2.8\text{ }\%$ and $12.2\pm2.3\%$, respectively. Both values are well below the $24\text{ }\%$ saturation PDE advertised by Hamamatsu. More generally, the second device tested at $3.5\pm0.2$ V of over voltage is below the nEXO PDE requirement. The first one instead yields a PDE that is marginally close to meeting the nEXO specifications. This suggests that with modest improvements the Hamamatsu VUV4 MPPCs could be considered as an alternative to the FBK-LF SiPMs for the final design of the nEXO detector.

Published
2019
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9. Neutron inelastic scattering measurements on $^{136}$Xe at $E_{n}$ = 0.7 to 100 MeV

Author

Daugherty, S. J., Albert, J. B., Kaufman, L. J., Devlin, M., Fotiades, N., Nelson, R. O., and Krtička, M.

Subjects
Nuclear Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

Experiments searching for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) require precise energy calibration and extremely low backgrounds. One of the most popular isotopes for $0\nu\beta\beta$ experiments is $^{136}$Xe. In support of these experiments, the neutron inelastic scattering properties of this isotope have been measured at the GErmanium Array for Neutron Induced Excitations (GEANIE) at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Time-of-flight techniques are utilized with high-purity germanium detectors to search for inelastic scattering $\gamma$ rays for neutron energies between 0.7 and 100 MeV. Limits are set on production of yet-unobserved $\gamma$ rays in the energy range critical for $0\nu\beta\beta$ studies, and measurements are made of multiple $\gamma$-ray production cross sections. In particular, we have measured the production of the 1313 keV $\gamma$ ray which comes from the transition of the first-excited to ground state of $^{136}$Xe. This neutron-induced $\gamma$ line may be useful for a novel energy calibration technique, described in this paper., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys Rev C

Published
2018
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10. Study of Silicon Photomultiplier Performance in External Electric Fields

Author

Sun, X. L., Tolba, T., Cao, G. F., Lv, P., Wen, L. J., Odian, A., Vachon, F., Alamre, A., Albert, J. B., Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bhatta, T., Bourque, F., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, L., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Côté, M., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Dalmasson, J., Daniels, T., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Echevers, J., Fabris, L., Fairbank, D., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fontaine, R., Fudenberg, D., Gallina, G., Giacomini, G., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hansen, E. V., Harris, D., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., Hößl, J., House, A., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Ito, Y., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jessiman, C., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Kodroff, D., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Larson, A., Leonard, D. S., Li, G., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Michel, T., Moe, M., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Newby, R. J., Ning, Z., Njoya, O., Nolet, F., Nusair, O., Odgers, K., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Ortega, G. S., Ostrovskiy, I., Overman, C. T., Parent, S., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Pratte, J. -F., Qiu, D., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rao, T., Rescia, S., Retière, F., Robinson, A., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., Schmidt, S., Schneider, J., Sinclair, D., VIII, K. Skarpaas, Soma, A. K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Totev, T. I., Tsang, R., Tsang, T., Veenstra, B., Veeraraghavan, V., Visser, G., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Wang, Q., Watkins, J., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Xia, Q., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zhao, J., Zhou, Y., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

We report on the performance of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) light sensors operating in electric field strength up to 30 kV/cm and at a temperature of 149K, relative to their performance in the absence of an external electric field. The SiPM devices used in this study show stable gain, photon detection efficiency, and rates of correlated pulses, when exposed to external fields, within the estimated uncertainties. No observable physical damage to the bulk or surface of the devices was caused by the exposure., Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables and two conferences (INPC2016 and TIPP2017)

Published
2018
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11. Imaging individual barium atoms in solid xenon for barium tagging in nEXO

Author

Chambers, C., Walton, T., Fairbank, D., Craycraft, A., Yahne, D. R., Todd, J., Iverson, A., Fairbank, W., Alamare, A., Albert, J. B., Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bhatta, T., Bourque, F., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Cao, L., Cen, W. R., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Cree, W., Côté, M., Dalmasson, J., Daniels, T., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Echevers, J., Fabris, L., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fontaine, R., Fudenberg, D., Giacomini, G., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hansen, E. V., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., Hößl, J., House, A., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Ito, Y., Jamil, A., Jessiman, C., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Kodroff, D., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Larson, A., Leonard, D. S., Li, G., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Lv, P., MacLellan, R., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Newby, R. J., Ning, Z., Njoya, O., Nolet, F., Nusair, O., Odgers, K., Odian, A., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Ortega, G. S., Ostrovskiy, I., Overman, C. T., Parent, S., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Pratte, J. -F., Qiu, D., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rao, T., Rescia, S., Retière, F., Robinson, A., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., Schmidt, S., Schneider, J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., VIII, K. Skarpaas, Soma, A. K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Sun, X. L., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, T. I. Totev. R., Tsang, T., Vachon, F., Veenstra, B., Veeraraghavan, V., Visser, G., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Wang, Q., Watkins, J., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Xia, Q., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zhang, X., Zhao, J., Zhou, Y., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay probes the fundamental properties of neutrinos, including whether or not the neutrino and antineutrino are distinct. Double beta detectors are large and expensive, so background reduction is essential for extracting the highest sensitivity. The identification, or 'tagging', of the $^{136}$Ba daughter atom from double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe provides a technique for eliminating backgrounds in the nEXO neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. The tagging scheme studied in this work utilizes a cryogenic probe to trap the barium atom in solid xenon, where the barium atom is tagged via fluorescence imaging in the solid xenon matrix. Here we demonstrate imaging and counting of individual atoms of barium in solid xenon by scanning a focused laser across a solid xenon matrix deposited on a sapphire window. When the laser sits on an individual atom, the fluorescence persists for $\sim$30~s before dropping abruptly to the background level, a clear confirmation of one-atom imaging. No barium fluorescence persists following evaporation of a barium deposit to a limit of $\leq$0.16\%. This is the first time that single atoms have been imaged in solid noble element. It establishes the basic principle of a barium tagging technique for nEXO.

Published
2018

12. VUV-sensitive Silicon Photomultipliers for Xenon Scintillation Light Detection in nEXO

Author

Jamil, A., Ziegler, T., Hufschmidt, P., Li, G., Lupin-Jimenez, L., Michel, T., Ostrovskiy, I., Retière, F., Schneider, J., Wagenpfeil, M., Albert, J. B., Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P., Beck, D., Belov, V., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Cao, L., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Côté, M., Dalmasson, J., Daniels, T., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Echevers, J., Fabris, L., Fairbank, D., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fontaine, R., Fudenberg, D., Gallina, G., Giacomini, G., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hansen, E. V., Harris, D., Hasan, M., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., House, A., Hughes, M., Hößl, J., Ito, Y., Iverson, A., Jewell, M., Jiang, X. S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Leonard, D. S., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Mong, B., Moore, D., Murray, K., Newby, R. J., Ning, Z., Njoya, O., Nolet, F., Odgers, K., Odian, A., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Overman, C. T., Ortega, G. S., Parent, S., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Pratte, J. -F., Qiu, D., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rao, T., Rescia, S., Robinson, A., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., Schmidt, S., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Skarpaas, K., Soma, A. K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Sun, X. L., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Tsang, T., Vachon, F., Veeraraghavan, V., Visser, G., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wang, Q., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Xia, Q., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zhang, X., Zhao, J., and Zhou, Y.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

Future tonne-scale liquefied noble gas detectors depend on efficient light detection in the VUV range. In the past years Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) have emerged as a valid alternative to standard photomultiplier tubes or large area avalanche photodiodes. The next generation double beta decay experiment, nEXO, with a 5 tonne liquid xenon time projection chamber, will use SiPMs for detecting the $178\,\text{nm}$ xenon scintillation light, in order to achieve an energy resolution of $\sigma / Q_{\beta\beta} = 1\, \%$. This paper presents recent measurements of the VUV-HD generation SiPMs from Fondazione Bruno Kessler in two complementary setups. It includes measurements of the photon detection efficiency with gaseous xenon scintillation light in a vacuum setup and dark measurements in a dry nitrogen gas setup. We report improved photon detection efficiency at $175\,\text{nm}$ compared to previous generation devices, that would meet the criteria of nEXO. Furthermore, we present the projected nEXO detector light collection and energy resolution that could be achieved by using these SiPMs., Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables

Published
2018
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13. nEXO Pre-Conceptual Design Report

Author

nEXO Collaboration, Kharusi, S. Al, Alamre, A., Albert, J. B., Alfaris, M., Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bhatta, T., Bourque, F., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Cao, L., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Conley, R., Coon, M., Côté, M., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Dalmasson, J., Daniels, T., Danovitch, D., Darroch, L., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., DeVoe, R., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., Di Vacri, M. L., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Echevers, J., Fabris, L., Fairbank, D., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Ferrara, S., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fontaine, R., Fudenberg, D., Gallina, G., Giacomini, G., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Haller, G., Hansen, E. V., Harris, D., Hasi, J., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., Hößl, J., House, A., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Ito, Y., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jessiman, C., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Kenney, C., Killick, R., Kodroff, D., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Larson, A., Lenardo, B. G., Leonard, D. S., Lewis, C. M., Li, G., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Lv, P., MacLellan, R., McFarlane, K., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Newby, R. J., Nguyen, T., Ning, Z., Njoya, O., Nolet, F., Nusair, O., Odgers, K., Odian, A., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Ortega, G. S., Ostrovskiy, I., Overman, C. T., Parent, S., Patel, M., Peña-Perez, A., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Pratte, J. -F., Qiu, D., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rao, T., Rescia, S., Retière, F., Robinson, A., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Runge, J., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., Schmidt, S., Schneider, J., Schubert, A., Segal, J., Skarpaas~VIII, K., Soma, A. K., Spitaels, K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Sun, X. L., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Totev, T. I., Tsang, R., Tsang, T., Vachon, F., Veenstra, B., Veeraraghavan, V., Visser, G., Vogel, P., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Wang, Q., Ward, M., Watkins, J., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Xia, Q., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zhang, X., Zhao, J., Zhou, Y., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

The projected performance and detector configuration of nEXO are described in this pre-Conceptual Design Report (pCDR). nEXO is a tonne-scale neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay search in $^{136}$Xe, based on the ultra-low background liquid xenon technology validated by EXO-200. With $\simeq$ 5000 kg of xenon enriched to 90% in the isotope 136, nEXO has a projected half-life sensitivity of approximately $10^{28}$ years. This represents an improvement in sensitivity of about two orders of magnitude with respect to current results. Based on the experience gained from EXO-200 and the effectiveness of xenon purification techniques, we expect the background to be dominated by external sources of radiation. The sensitivity increase is, therefore, entirely derived from the increase of active mass in a monolithic and homogeneous detector, along with some technical advances perfected in the course of a dedicated R&D program. Hence the risk which is inherent to the construction of a large, ultra-low background detector is reduced, as the intrinsic radioactive contamination requirements are generally not beyond those demonstrated with the present generation $0\nu\beta\beta$ decay experiments. Indeed, most of the required materials have been already assayed or reasonable estimates of their properties are at hand. The details described herein represent the base design of the detector configuration as of early 2018. Where potential design improvements are possible, alternatives are discussed. This design for nEXO presents a compelling path towards a next generation search for $0\nu\beta\beta$, with a substantial possibility to discover physics beyond the Standard Model., Comment: 182 pages, minor revisions

Published
2018

14. Deep Neural Networks for Energy and Position Reconstruction in EXO-200

Author

Delaquis, S., Jewell, M. J., Ostrovskiy, I., Weber, M., Ziegler, T., Dalmasson, J., Kaufman, L. J., Richards, T., Albert, J. B., Anton, G., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Bayerlein, R., Beck, D., Belov, V., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Davis, J., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Gornea, R., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Hansen, E. V., Harris, D., Hoessl, J., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Johnson, A., Karelin, A., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Leonard, D. S., Li, G. S., Li, S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D., Murray, K., Njoya, O., Odian, A., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Retière, F., Robinson, A. L., Rowson, P. C., Schmidt, S., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Soma, A. K., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Veeraraghavan, V., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Waite, A., Watkins, J., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Xia, Q., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zeldovich, O. Ya.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

We apply deep neural networks (DNN) to data from the EXO-200 experiment. In the studied cases, the DNN is able to reconstruct the relevant parameters - total energy and position - directly from raw digitized waveforms, with minimal exceptions. For the first time, the developed algorithms are evaluated on real detector calibration data. The accuracy of reconstruction either reaches or exceeds what was achieved by the conventional approaches developed by EXO-200 over the course of the experiment. Most existing DNN approaches to event reconstruction and classification in particle physics are trained on Monte Carlo simulated events. Such algorithms are inherently limited by the accuracy of the simulation. We describe a unique approach that, in an experiment such as EXO-200, allows to successfully perform certain reconstruction and analysis tasks by training the network on waveforms from experimental data, either reducing or eliminating the reliance on the Monte Carlo., Comment: Accepted version. 33 pages, 28 figures

Published
2018
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15. Search for nucleon decays with EXO-200

Author

Albert, J. B., Anton, G., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Bayerlein, R., Beck, D., Belov, V., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Hansen, E. V., Hoessl, J., Homiller, S., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Jamil, A., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Leonard, D. S., Li, G. S., Li, S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D., Murray, K., Nelson, R., Njoya, O., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Retière, F., Robinson, A. L., Rowson, P. C., Schmidt, S., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Soma, A. K., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Vogel, P., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Waite, A., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya., Zettlemoyer, J., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

A search for instability of nucleons bound in $^{136}$Xe nuclei is reported with 223 kg$\cdot$yr exposure of $^{136}$Xe in the EXO-200 experiment. Lifetime limits of 3.3$\times 10^{23}$ and 1.9$\times 10^{23}$ yrs are established for nucleon decay to $^{133}$Sb and $^{133}$Te, respectively. These are the most stringent to date, exceeding the prior decay limits by a factor of 9 and 7, respectively.

Published
2017
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16. Sensitivity and discovery potential of the proposed nEXO experiment to neutrinoless double beta decay

Author

nEXO Collaboration, Albert, J. B., Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bourque, F., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Cao, L., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Côté, M., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Dalmasson, J., Daniels, T., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., DeVoe, R., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Fabris, L., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fontaine, R., Fudenberg, D., Giacomini, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hansen, E. V., Harris, D., Hasan, M., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., Hößl, J., House, A., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Ito, Y., Iverson, A., Jamil, A., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Leonard, D. S., Li, G., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D. C., Murray, K., Newby, R. J., Ning, Z., Njoya, O., Nolet, F., Odgers, K., Odian, A., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Ortega, G. S., Ostrovskiy, I., Overman, C. T., Parent, S., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Pratte, J. -F., Qiu, D., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rao, T., Rescia, S., Retière, F., Robinson, A., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., Schmidt, S., Schneider, J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., VIII, K. Skarpaas, Soma, A. K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Sun, X. L., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Tsang, T., Vachon, F., Veeraraghavan, V., Visser, G., Vogel, P., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Wang, Q., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zettlemoyer, J., Zhang, X., Zhao, J., Zhou, Y., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Nuclear Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

The next-generation Enriched Xenon Observatory (nEXO) is a proposed experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay in $^{136}$Xe with a target half-life sensitivity of approximately $10^{28}$ years using $5\times10^3$ kg of isotopically enriched liquid-xenon in a time projection chamber. This improvement of two orders of magnitude in sensitivity over current limits is obtained by a significant increase of the $^{136}$Xe mass, the monolithic and homogeneous configuration of the active medium, and the multi-parameter measurements of the interactions enabled by the time projection chamber. The detector concept and anticipated performance are presented based upon demonstrated realizable background rates., Comment: v2 as published

Published
2017
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17. Characterization of an Ionization Readout Tile for nEXO

Author

nEXO Collaboration, Jewell, M., Schubert, A., Cen, W. R., Dalmasson, J., DeVoe, R., Fabris, L., Gratta, G., Jamil, A., Li, G., Odian, A., Patel, M., Pocar, A., Qiu, D., Wang, Q., Wen, L. J., Albert, J. B., Anton, G., Arnquist, I. J., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P., Beck, D., Belov, V., Bourque, F., Brodsky, J. P., Brown, E., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Cao, L., Chambers, C., Charlebois, S. A., Chiu, M., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Côté, M., Daniels, T., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Ding, Y. Y., Dolinski, M. J., Dragone, A., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fontaine, R., Fudenberg, D., Giacomini, G., Gornea, R., Hansen, E. V., Harris, D., Hasan, M., Heffner, M., Hoppe, E. W., House, A., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Hößl, J., Ito, Y., Iverson, A., Jiang, X. S., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Leonard, D. S., Li, S., Li, Z., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D., Murray, K., Newby, R. J., Ning, Z., Njoya, O., Nolet, F., Odgers, K., Oriunno, M., Orrell, J. L., Ostrovskiy, I., Overman, C. T., Ortega, G. S., Parent, S., Piepke, A., Pratte, J. -F., Radeka, V., Raguzin, E., Rao, T., Rescia, S., Retiere, F., Robinson, A., Rossignol, T., Rowson, P. C., Roy, N., Saldanha, R., Sangiorgio, S., Schmidt, S., Schneider, J., Sinclair, D., Skarpaas, K., Soma, A. K., St-Hilaire, G., Stekhanov, V., Stiegler, T., Sun, X. L., Tarka, M., Todd, J., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Tsang, T., Vachon, F., Veeraraghavan, V., Visser, G., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Wagenpfeil, M., Weber, M., Wei, W., Wichoski, U., Wrede, G., Wu, S. X., Wu, W. H., Xuan, Z., Yang, L., Yayun, D., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O., Zhang, X., Zhao, J., Zhe, N., Zhou, Y., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

A new design for the anode of a time projection chamber, consisting of a charge-detecting "tile", is investigated for use in large scale liquid xenon detectors. The tile is produced by depositing 60 orthogonal metal charge-collecting strips, 3~mm wide, on a 10~\si{\cm} $\times$ 10~\si{\cm} fused-silica wafer. These charge tiles may be employed by large detectors, such as the proposed tonne-scale nEXO experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay. Modular by design, an array of tiles can cover a sizable area. The width of each strip is small compared to the size of the tile, so a Frisch grid is not required. A grid-less, tiled anode design is beneficial for an experiment such as nEXO, where a wire tensioning support structure and Frisch grid might contribute radioactive backgrounds and would have to be designed to accommodate cycling to cryogenic temperatures. The segmented anode also reduces some degeneracies in signal reconstruction that arise in large-area crossed-wire time projection chambers. A prototype tile was tested in a cell containing liquid xenon. Very good agreement is achieved between the measured ionization spectrum of a $^{207}$Bi source and simulations that include the microphysics of recombination in xenon and a detailed modeling of the electrostatic field of the detector. An energy resolution $\sigma/E$=5.5\% is observed at 570~\si{keV}, comparable to the best intrinsic ionization-only resolution reported in literature for liquid xenon at 936~V/\si{cm}., Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, as published

Published
2017
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18. Trace radioactive impurities in final construction materials for EXO-200

Author

Leonard, D. S., Auty, D., Didberidze, T., Gornea, R., Grinberg, P., MacLellan, R., Methven, B., Piepke, A., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Albert, J. B., Anton, G., Badhrees, I., Barbeau, P. S., Bayerlein, R., Beck, D., Belov, V., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Cree, W., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Herrin, S., Hoessl, J., Hufschmidt, P., Hughes, M., Jamil, A., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Johntson, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., LePort, F., Li, S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Mackay, D., Marino, M. G., Michel, T., Mong, B., Moore, D., Murray, K., Neilson, R., Nelson, R., Njoya, O., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Pocar, A., Pushkin, K., Retière, F., Rowson, P. C., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Wagenpfeil, M., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Wamba, K., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wodin, J., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya., Zettlemoyer, J., and Ziegler, T.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

We report results from a systematic measurement campaign conducted to identify low radioactivity materials for the construction of the EXO-200 double beta decay experiment. Partial results from this campaign have already been reported in a 2008 paper by the EXO collaboration. Here we release the remaining data, collected since 2007, to the public. The data reported were obtained using a variety of analytic techniques. The measurement sensitivities are among the best in the field. Construction of the EXO-200 detector has been concluded, and Phase-I data was taken from 2011 to 2014. The detector's extremely low background implicitly verifies the measurements and the analysis assumptions made during construction and reported in this paper., Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures

Published
2017
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19. Measurement of the Drift Velocity and Transverse Diffusion of Electrons in Liquid Xenon with the EXO-200 Detector

Author

Collaboration, EXO-200, Albert, J. B., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krucken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Leonard, D. S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Njoya, O., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Retiere, F., Rowson, P. C., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wood, J., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya., and Zettlemoyer, J.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

The EXO-200 Collaboration is searching for neutrinoless double beta decay using a liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber. This measurement relies on modeling the transport of charge deposits produced by interactions in the LXe to allow discrimination between signal and background events. Here we present measurements of the transverse diffusion constant and drift velocity of electrons at drift fields between 20~V/cm and 615~V/cm using EXO-200 data. At the operating field of 380~V/cm EXO-200 measures a drift velocity of 1.705$_{-0.010}^{+0.014}$~mm/$\mu$s and a transverse diffusion coefficient of 55$\pm$4~cm$^2$/s., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, added minor clarifications recommended by the reviewer on E-field non-uniformities, minor edits to formatting of figures to conform with journal requirements

Published
2016
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20. An Optimal Energy Estimator to Reduce Correlated Noise for the EXO-200 Light Readout

Author

Collaboration, EXO-200, Davis, C. G., Hall, C., Albert, J. B., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Ling, J., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Njoya, O., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Retière, F., Rowson, P. C., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wood, J., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zeldovich, O. Ya.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

The energy resolution of the EXO-200 detector is limited by electronics noise in the measurement of the scintillation response. Here we present a new technique to extract optimal scintillation energy measurements for signals split across multiple channels in the presence of correlated noise. The implementation of these techniques improves the energy resolution of the detector at the neutrinoless double beta decay Q-value from $\left[1.9641\pm 0.0039\right]\%$ to $\left[1.5820\pm 0.0044\right]\%$., Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, 1 table

Published
2016
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21. Cosmogenic Backgrounds to 0{\nu}{\beta}{\beta} in EXO-200

Author

Collaboration, EXO-200, Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank Jr, W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Herrin, S., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Ling, J., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Njoya, O., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Retière, F., Rowson, P. C., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wood, J., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zeldovich, O. Ya.

Subjects
Nuclear Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

As neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments become more sensitive and intrinsic radioactivity in detector materials is reduced, previously minor contributions to the background must be understood and eliminated. With this in mind, cosmogenic backgrounds have been studied with the EXO-200 experiment. Using the EXO-200 TPC, the muon flux (through a flat horizontal surface) underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) has been measured to be {\Phi} = 4.07 $\pm$ 0.14 (sys) $\pm$ 0.03 (stat) $\times$ $10^{-7}$cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$, with a vertical intensity of $I_{v}$ = 2.97$^{+0.14}_{-0.13}$ (sys) $\pm$ 0.02 (stat) $\times$ $10^{-7}$cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ sr$^{-1}$. Simulations of muon-induced backgrounds identified several potential cosmogenic radionuclides, though only 137Xe is a significant background for the 136Xe 0{\nu}{\beta}{\beta} search with EXO-200. Muon-induced neutron backgrounds were measured using {\gamma}-rays from neutron capture on the detector materials. This provided a measurement of 137Xe yield, and a test of the accuracy of the neutron production and transport simulations. The independently measured rates of 136Xe neutron capture and of 137Xe decay agree within uncertainties. Geant4 and FLUKA simulations were performed to estimate neutron capture rates, and these estimates agreed to within ~40% or better with measurements. The ability to identify 136Xe(n,{\gamma}) events will allow for rejection of 137Xe backgrounds in future 0{\nu}{\beta}{\beta} analyses., Comment: Published in JCAP, 29 pages, 13 figures

Published
2015
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22. Measurements of the ion fraction and mobility of alpha and beta decay products in liquid xenon using EXO-200

Author

Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, C. G., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Ling, J., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Nelson, R., O'Sullivan, K., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Robinson, A., Rowson, P. C., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wright, J. D., Wood, J., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zeldovich, O. Ya.

Subjects
Nuclear Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

Alpha decays in the EXO-200 detector are used to measure the fraction of charged $^{218}\mathrm{Po}$ and $^{214}\mathrm{Bi}$ daughters created from alpha and beta decays, respectively. $^{222}\mathrm{Rn}$ alpha decays in liquid xenon (LXe) are found to produce $^{218}\mathrm{Po}^{+}$ ions $50.3 \pm 3.0\%$ of the time, while the remainder of the $^{218}\mathrm{Po}$ atoms are neutral. The fraction of $^{214}\mathrm{Bi}^{+}$ from $^{214}\mathrm{Pb}$ beta decays in LXe is found to be $76.4 \pm 5.7\%$, inferred from the relative rates of $^{218}\mathrm{Po}$ and $^{214}\mathrm{Po}$ alpha decays in the LXe. The average velocity of $^{218}\mathrm{Po}$ ions is observed to decrease for longer drift times. Initially the ions have a mobility of $0.390 \pm 0.006~\mathrm{cm}^2/(\mathrm{kV}~\mathrm{s})$, and at long drift times the mobility is $0.219 \pm 0.004~\mathrm{cm}^2/(\mathrm{kV}~\mathrm{s})$. Time constants associated with the change in mobility during drift of the $^{218}\mathrm{Po}^{+}$ ions are found to be proportional to the electron lifetime in the LXe.

Published
2015
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23. Investigation of radioactivity-induced backgrounds in EXO-200

Author

Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Benitez-Medina, C., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, C. G., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Herrin, S., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Ling, J., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Rivas, A., Rowson, P. C., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wood, J., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zeldovich, O. Ya.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

The search for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0{\nu}{\beta}{\beta}) requires extremely low background and a good understanding of their sources and their influence on the rate in the region of parameter space relevant to the 0{\nu}{\beta}{\beta} signal. We report on studies of various {\beta}- and {\gamma}-backgrounds in the liquid- xenon-based EXO-200 0{\nu}{\beta}{\beta} experiment. With this work we try to better understand the location and strength of specific background sources and compare the conclusions to radioassay results taken before and during detector construction. Finally, we discuss the implications of these studies for EXO-200 as well as for the next-generation, tonne-scale nEXO detector., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables

Published
2015
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24. Spectroscopy of Ba and Ba$^+$ deposits in solid xenon for barium tagging in nEXO

Author

Mong, B., Cook, S., Walton, T., Chambers, C., Craycraft, A., Benitez-Medina, C., Hall, K., Fairbank Jr., W., Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Basque, V., Beck, D., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Daniels, T., Daugherty, S. J., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fabris, L., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Heffner, M., Hughes, M., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krucken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Ling, J., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Moore, D., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Retiere, F., Rowson, P. C., Rozo, M. P., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Twelker, K., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Walton, J., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zhao, Y. B.

Subjects
Physics - Atomic Physics, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

Progress on a method of barium tagging for the nEXO double beta decay experiment is reported. Absorption and emission spectra for deposits of barium atoms and ions in solid xenon matrices are presented. Excitation spectra for prominent emission lines, temperature dependence and bleaching of the fluorescence reveal the existence of different matrix sites. A regular series of sharp lines observed in Ba$^+$ deposits is identified with some type of barium hydride molecule. Lower limits for the fluorescence quantum efficiency of the principal Ba emission transition are reported. Under current conditions, an image of $\le10^4$ Ba atoms can be obtained. Prospects for imaging single Ba atoms in solid xenon are discussed.

Published
2014
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25. Search for Majoron-emitting modes of double-beta decay of $^{136}$Xe with EXO-200

Author

Collaboration, EXO-200, Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beauchamp, E., Beck, D., Belov, V., Benitez-Medina, C., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Chaves, J., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, C. G., Davis, J., DeVoe, R., Delaquis, S., Didberidze, T., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Herrin, S., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Leonard, F., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Ling, J., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Ouellet, C., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Rivas, A., Rowson, P. C., Rozo, M. P., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tosi, D., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Vogel, P., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zeldovich, O. Ya.

Subjects
High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

EXO-200 is a single phase liquid xenon detector designed to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{136}$Xe. Here we report on a search for various Majoron-emitting modes based on 100 kg$\cdot$yr exposure of $^{136}$Xe. A lower limit of $T^{^{136}Xe}_{1/2} >1.2 \cdot 10^{24}$ yr at 90% C.L. on the half-life of the spectral index = 1 Majoron decay was obtained, corresponding to a constraint on the Majoron-neutrino coupling constant of $|< g^{M}_{ee} >|<$ (0.8-1.7)$\cdot$10$^{-5}$., Comment: Published in PRD. Version 2: Referee comments addressed, journal reference added

Published
2014
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26. An apparatus to manipulate and identify individual Ba ions from bulk liquid Xe

Author

Twelker, K., Kravitz, S., Díez, M. Montero, Gratta, G., Fairbank Jr., W., Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Benitez-Medina, C., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, C. G., DeVoe, R., Delaquis, S., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fabris, L., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Hall, C., Heffner, M., Herrin, S., Hughes, M., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Krücken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Leonard, F., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Ouellet, C., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Retiere, F., Rowson, P. C., Rozo, M. P., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tosi, D., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zhao, Y. B.

Subjects
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

We describe a system to transport and identify barium ions produced in liquid xenon, as part of R&D towards the second phase of a double beta decay experiment, nEXO. The goal is to identify the Ba ion resulting from an extremely rare nuclear decay of the isotope $^{136}$Xe, hence providing a confirmation of the occurrence of the decay. This is achieved through Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (RIS). In the test setup described here, Ba ions can be produced in liquid xenon or vacuum and collected on a clean substrate. This substrate is then removed to an analysis chamber under vacuum, where laser-induced thermal desorption and RIS are used with time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectroscopy for positive identification of the barium decay product., Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures

Published
2014
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27. Search for Majorana neutrinos with the first two years of EXO-200 data

Author

Collaboration, EXO-200, Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beauchamp, E., Beck, D., Belov, V., Benitez-Medina, C., Bonatt, J., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Chaves, J., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, C. G., Davis, J., DeVoe, R., Delaquis, S., Didberidze, T., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Herrin, S., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Leonard, F., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Ouellet, C., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Rivas, A., Rowson, P. C., Rozo, M. P., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Slutsky, S., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tosi, D., Twelker, K., Vogel, P., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wright, J. D., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya., and Zhao, Y. B.

Subjects
Nuclear Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

Many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics suggest that neutrinos should be Majorana-type fermions, but this assumption is difficult to confirm. Observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu \beta \beta$), a spontaneous transition that may occur in several candidate nuclei, would verify the Majorana nature of the neutrino and constrain the absolute scale of the neutrino mass spectrum. Recent searches carried out with $^{76}$Ge (GERDA experiment) and $^{136}$Xe (KamLAND-Zen and EXO-200 experiments) have established the lifetime of this decay to be longer than $10^{25}$ yr, corresponding to a limit on the neutrino mass of 0.2-0.4 eV. Here we report new results from EXO-200 based on 100 kg$\cdot$yr of $^{136}$Xe exposure, representing an almost fourfold increase from our earlier published datasets. We have improved the detector resolution at the $^{136}$Xe double-beta-decay Q-value to $\sigma$/E = 1.53% and revised the data analysis. The obtained half-life sensitivity is $1.9\cdot10^{25}$ yr, an improvement by a factor of 2.7 compared to previous EXO-200 results. We find no statistically significant evidence for $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay and set a half-life limit of $1.1\cdot10^{25}$ yr at 90% CL. The high sensitivity holds promise for further running of the EXO-200 detector and future $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay searches with nEXO., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

Published
2014
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28. An improved measurement of the 2\nu \beta \beta\ half-life of Xe-136 with EXO-200

Author

Albert, J. B., Auger, M., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beauchamp, E., Beck, D., Belov, V., Benitez-Medina, C., Bonatt, J., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Chaves, J., Cleveland, B., Cook, S., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, C. G., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., DeVoe, R., Dobi, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dolgolenko, A., Dunford, M., Fairbank Jr., W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Franco, D., Fudenberg, D., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Hall, K., Hargrove, C., Herrin, S., Hughes, M., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Kravitz, S., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Leonard, F., Licciardi, C., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Díez, M. Montero, Moore, D., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., O'Sullivan, K., Ouellet, C., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Rivas, A., Rowson, P. C., Rozo, M. P., Russell, J. J., Sabourov, A., Sinclair, D., Skarpaas, K., Slutsky, S., Stekhanov, V., Strickland, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tosi, D., Twelker, K., Vogel, P., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wodin, J., Wright, J. D., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya., and Zhao, Y. B.

Subjects
Nuclear Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Abstract

We report on an improved measurement of the 2\nu \beta \beta\ half-life of Xe-136 performed by EXO-200. The use of a large and homogeneous time projection chamber allows for the precise estimate of the fiducial mass used for the measurement, resulting in a small systematic uncertainty. We also discuss in detail the data analysis methods used for double-beta decay searches with EXO-200, while emphasizing those directly related to the present measurement. The Xe-136 2\nu \beta \beta\ half-life is found to be 2.165 +- 0.016 (stat) +- 0.059 (sys) x 10^21 years. This is the most precisely measured half-life of any 2\nu \beta \beta\ decay to date., Comment: 34 pages, 32 figures, Updated to published version

Published
2013
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29. Measurement of the drift velocity and transverse diffusion of electrons in liquid xenon with the EXO-200 detector

Author

200 Collaboration, Albert, J. B., Barbeau, P. S., Beck, D., Belov, V., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Cen, W. R., Chambers, C., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Daughhetee, J., Davis, J., Delaquis, S., Der Mesrobian-Kabakian, A., DeVoe, R., Didberidze, T., Dilling, J., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Feyzbakhsh, S., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Krucken, R., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Lan, Y., Leonard, D. S., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Njoya, O., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Retiere, F., Rowson, P. C., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wood, J., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya., and Zettlemoyer, J.

Subjects
Physics, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Time projection chamber, Drift velocity, Field (physics), 010308 nuclear & particles physics, FOS: Physical sciences, chemistry.chemical_element, Charge (physics), Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), Electron, 01 natural sciences, 7. Clean energy, Fick's laws of diffusion, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear physics, High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex), Xenon, chemistry, 0103 physical sciences, Atomic physics, Diffusion (business), 010306 general physics
Abstract

The EXO-200 Collaboration is searching for neutrinoless double beta decay using a liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber. This measurement relies on modeling the transport of charge deposits produced by interactions in the LXe to allow discrimination between signal and background events. Here we present measurements of the transverse diffusion constant and drift velocity of electrons at drift fields between 20~V/cm and 615~V/cm using EXO-200 data. At the operating field of 380~V/cm EXO-200 measures a drift velocity of 1.705$_{-0.010}^{+0.014}$~mm/$\mu$s and a transverse diffusion coefficient of 55$\pm$4~cm$^2$/s., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, added minor clarifications recommended by the reviewer on E-field non-uniformities, minor edits to formatting of figures to conform with journal requirements

Published
2017

30. Search for Majoron-emitting modes of double-beta decay of $^{136}$Xe with EXO-200

Author

200 Collaboration, Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beauchamp, E., Beck, D., Belov, V., Benitez-Medina, C., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Chaves, J., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, C. G., Davis, J., DeVoe, R., Delaquis, S., Didberidze, T., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Herrin, S., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Leonard, F., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., Ling, J., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Ouellet, C., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Rivas, A., Rowson, P. C., Rozo, M. P., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tosi, D., Tsang, R., Twelker, K., Vogel, P., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., and Zeldovich, O. Ya.

Subjects
High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex), Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, FOS: Physical sciences, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex), Nuclear Experiment, High Energy Physics - Experiment
Abstract

EXO-200 is a single phase liquid xenon detector designed to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{136}$Xe. Here we report on a search for various Majoron-emitting modes based on 100 kg$\cdot$yr exposure of $^{136}$Xe. A lower limit of $T^{^{136}Xe}_{1/2} >1.2 \cdot 10^{24}$ yr at 90% C.L. on the half-life of the spectral index = 1 Majoron decay was obtained, corresponding to a constraint on the Majoron-neutrino coupling constant of $|< g^{M}_{ee} >, Comment: Published in PRD. Version 2: Referee comments addressed, journal reference added

Published
2014

31. Search for Majorana neutrinos with the first two years of EXO-200 data

Author

200 Collaboration, Albert, J. B., Auty, D. J., Barbeau, P. S., Beauchamp, E., Beck, D., Belov, V., Benitez-Medina, C., Bonatt, J., Breidenbach, M., Brunner, T., Burenkov, A., Cao, G. F., Chambers, C., Chaves, J., Cleveland, B., Coon, M., Craycraft, A., Daniels, T., Danilov, M., Daugherty, S. J., Davis, C. G., Davis, J., DeVoe, R., Delaquis, S., Didberidze, T., Dolgolenko, A., Dolinski, M. J., Dunford, M., Fairbank, W., Farine, J., Feldmeier, W., Fierlinger, P., Fudenberg, D., Giroux, G., Gornea, R., Graham, K., Gratta, G., Hall, C., Herrin, S., Hughes, M., Jewell, M. J., Jiang, X. S., Johnson, A., Johnson, T. N., Johnston, S., Karelin, A., Kaufman, L. J., Killick, R., Koffas, T., Kravitz, S., Kuchenkov, A., Kumar, K. S., Leonard, D. S., Leonard, F., Licciardi, C., Lin, Y. H., MacLellan, R., Marino, M. G., Mong, B., Moore, D., Nelson, R., Odian, A., Ostrovskiy, I., Ouellet, C., Piepke, A., Pocar, A., Prescott, C. Y., Rivas, A., Rowson, P. C., Rozo, M. P., Russell, J. J., Schubert, A., Sinclair, D., Slutsky, S., Smith, E., Stekhanov, V., Tarka, M., Tolba, T., Tosi, D., Twelker, K., Vogel, P., Vuilleumier, J. -L., Waite, A., Walton, J., Walton, T., Weber, M., Wen, L. J., Wichoski, U., Wright, J. D., Yang, L., Yen, Y. -R., Zeldovich, O. Ya., and Zhao, Y. B.

Subjects
Physics, Particle physics, Multidisciplinary, Time projection chamber, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, FOS: Physical sciences, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), 7. Clean energy, 01 natural sciences, Standard Model, High Energy Physics - Experiment, Nuclear physics, MAJORANA, High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex), 0103 physical sciences, Mass spectrum, Limit (mathematics), Neutrino, Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex), 010306 general physics, Enriched Xenon Observatory, Absolute scale, Nuclear Experiment
Abstract

Many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics suggest that neutrinos should be Majorana-type fermions, but this assumption is difficult to confirm. Observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu \beta \beta$), a spontaneous transition that may occur in several candidate nuclei, would verify the Majorana nature of the neutrino and constrain the absolute scale of the neutrino mass spectrum. Recent searches carried out with $^{76}$Ge (GERDA experiment) and $^{136}$Xe (KamLAND-Zen and EXO-200 experiments) have established the lifetime of this decay to be longer than $10^{25}$ yr, corresponding to a limit on the neutrino mass of 0.2-0.4 eV. Here we report new results from EXO-200 based on 100 kg$\cdot$yr of $^{136}$Xe exposure, representing an almost fourfold increase from our earlier published datasets. We have improved the detector resolution at the $^{136}$Xe double-beta-decay Q-value to $\sigma$/E = 1.53% and revised the data analysis. The obtained half-life sensitivity is $1.9\cdot10^{25}$ yr, an improvement by a factor of 2.7 compared to previous EXO-200 results. We find no statistically significant evidence for $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay and set a half-life limit of $1.1\cdot10^{25}$ yr at 90% CL. The high sensitivity holds promise for further running of the EXO-200 detector and future $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay searches with nEXO., Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

Published
2014

32. The liquid-argon scintillation pulseshape in DEAP-3600

Author

N. J. T. Smith, V. Strickland, M. Batygov, B. Lehnert, J. B. McLaughlin, K. Dering, I. N. Machulin, P. Garcia Abia, T. Pollmann, J. F. Bueno, D. Goeldi, C. Ng, R. Santorelli, J. M. Corning, P. Skensved, D. Gallacher, Jocelyn Monroe, M. Waqar, E. A. Garcés, F. La Zia, M. Kuźniak, C. Rethmeier, Laurelle Maria Veloce, Miguel Cárdenas-Montes, G. Fiorillo, Stefano Cavuoti, T. Sánchez-Pastor, Mark Guy Boulay, P. Pasuthip, C. Hearns, F. Retiere, C. J. Jillings, C. Ouellet, C. Nantais, B. Smith, Bei Cai, E. Vázquez-Jáuregui, O. Kamaev, M. C. Piro, C. Stone, N. Levashko, A. Butcher, S. Westerdale, Darren Grant, P. Giampa, F. A. Duncan, B. Broerman, B. Beltran, N. Seeburn, O. Litvinov, P. Nadeau, A. Joy, X. Li, Monica Dunford, T. Sonley, S. Viel, A. L. Hallin, V. Pesudo, S. J. M. Peeters, N. Fatemighomi, R. Ford, P. Adhikari, E. Sanchez Garcia, Giuseppe Longo, J. Walding, P. Majewski, A. Kemp, G. Kaur, R. Ajaj, R. Mehdiyev, A. Ilyasov, S. Langrock, P. Gorel, B. T. Cleveland, Martin Ward, C. Mielnichuk, Bhaskar Sur, C. E. Bina, G. R. Araujo, P. J. Harvey, I. Kochanek, J. Lock, A. Zuñiga-Reyes, S. J. Daugherty, A. Erlandson, J. Willis, Luca Doria, S. Pal, S. Garg, E. T. Rand, V. V. Golovko, T. McGinn, T. McElroy, R. Stainforth, P. Di Stefano, A. Grobov, K. Graham, A. B. McDonald, Y. Chen, A. Flower, M. Stringer, A. J. Noble, G. Oliviéro, M. Hamstra, R. Gagnon, Adhikari, P., Ajaj, R., Araujo, G. R., Batygov, M., Beltran, B., Bina, C. E., Boulay, M. G., Broerman, B., Bueno, J. F., Butcher, A., Cai, B., Cárdenas-Montes, M., Cavuoti, S., Chen, Y., Cleveland, B. T., Corning, J. M., Daugherty, S. J., Di Stefano, P., Dering, K., Doria, L., Duncan, F. A., Dunford, M., Erlandson, A., Fatemighomi, N., Fiorillo, G., Flower, A., Ford, R. J., Gagnon, R., Gallacher, D., Garcés, E. A., García Abia, P., Garg, S., Giampa, P., Goeldi, D., Golovko, V. V., Gorel, P., Graham, K., Grant, D. R., Grobov, A., Hallin, A. L., Hamstra, M., Harvey, P. J., Hearns, C., Ilyasov, A., Joy, A., Jillings, C. J., Kamaev, O., Kaur, G., Kemp, A., Kochanek, I., Kuźniak, M., Langrock, S., La Zia, F., Lehnert, B., Levashko, N., Li, X., Litvinov, O., Lock, J., Longo, G., Machulin, I., Majewski, P., Mcdonald, A. B., Mcelroy, T., Mcginn, T., Mclaughlin, J. B., Mehdiyev, R., Mielnichuk, C., Monroe, J., Nadeau, P., Nantais, C., Ng, C., Noble, A. J., Oliviéro, G., Ouellet, C., Pal, S., Pasuthip, P., Peeters, S. J. M., Pesudo, V., Piro, M. -C., Pollmann, T. R., Rand, E. T., Rethmeier, C., Retière, F., Sanchez García, E., Sánchez-Pastor, T., Santorelli, R., Seeburn, N., Skensved, P., Smith, B., Smith, N. J. T., Sonley, T., Stainforth, R., Stone, C., Strickland, V., Stringer, M., Sur, B., Vázquez-Jáuregui, E., Veloce, L., Viel, S., Walding, J., Waqar, M., Ward, M., Westerdale, S., Willis, J., and Zuñiga-Reyes, A.

Subjects
Photomultiplier, Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors, Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous), Physics::Instrumentation and Detectors, Dark matter, FOS: Physical sciences, lcsh:Astrophysics, Scintillator, Wavelength shifter, 01 natural sciences, Particle detector, DEAP, Optics, 0103 physical sciences, lcsh:QB460-466, lcsh:Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity, 010306 general physics, Engineering (miscellaneous), Physics, Scintillation, 010308 nuclear & particles physics, business.industry, Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det), Scintillation counter, lcsh:QC770-798, business
Abstract

DEAP-3600 is a liquid-argon scintillation detector looking for dark matter. Scintillation events in the liquid argon (LAr) are registered by 255 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), and pulseshape discrimination (PSD) is used to suppress electromagnetic background events. The excellent PSD performance of LAr makes it a viable target for dark matter searches, and the LAr scintillation pulseshape discussed here is the basis of PSD. The observed pulseshape is a combination of LAr scintillation physics with detector effects. We present a model for the pulseshape of electromagnetic background events in the energy region of interest for dark matter searches. The model is composed of (a) LAr scintillation physics, including the so-called intermediate component, (b) the time response of the TPB wavelength shifter, including delayed TPB emission at $${\mathcal {O}}$$O(ms) time-scales, and c) PMT response. TPB is the wavelength shifter of choice in most LAr detectors. We find that approximately 10% of the intensity of the wavelength-shifted light is in a long-lived state of TPB. This causes light from an event to spill into subsequent events to an extent not usually accounted for in the design and data analysis of LAr-based detectors.

Published
2020

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