2020/01/31 by L Rogers, L. Rogers, B. J. P. Jones +182
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cosmic ray #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Detector #Isotope #Isotopes of xenon #Muon #Muon capture #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutron #Neutron capture #Spallation #Xenon #hep-ex #physics.ins-det
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1361-6471/ab8915
openalex created_date 2020/02/07 · openalex publication_date 2020/05/25 · arxiv created 2020/05/27 · arxiv updated 2020/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract 136 Xe is used as the target medium for many experiments searching for 0 νββ . Despite underground operation, cosmic muons that reach the laboratory can produce spallation neutrons causing activation of detector materials. A potential background that is difficult to veto using muon tagging comes in the form of 137 Xe created by the capture of neutrons on 136 Xe. This isotope decays via beta decay with a half-life of 3.8 min and a Q β of ∼4.16 MeV. This work proposes and explores the concept of adding a small percentage of 3 He to xenon as a means to capture thermal neutrons and reduce the number of activations in the detector volume. When using this technique we find the contamination from 137 Xe activation can be reduced to negligible levels in tonne and multi-tonne scale high pressure gas xenon neutrinoless double beta decay experiments running at any depth in an underground laboratory.