Collaboration, LUX;
Akerib, DS;
Araújo, HM;
Bai, X;
Bailey, AJ;
Balajthy, J;
Beltrame, P;
... Zhang, C; + view all
(2018)
Chromatographic separation of radioactive noble gases from xenon.
Astroparticle Physics
, 97
pp. 80-87.
10.1016/j.astropartphys.2017.10.014.
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Abstract
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment operates at the Sanford Underground Research Facility to detect nuclear recoils from the hypothetical Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) on a liquid xenon target. Liquid xenon typically contains trace amounts of the noble radioactive isotopes 85Kr and 39Ar that are not removed by the in situ gas purification system. The decays of these isotopes at concentrations typical of research-grade xenon would be a dominant background for a WIMP search experiment. To remove these impurities from the liquid xenon, a chromatographic separation system based on adsorption on activated charcoal was built. 400 kg of xenon was processed, reducing the average concentration of krypton from 130 ppb to 3.5 ppt as measured by a cold-trap assisted mass spectroscopy system. A 50 kg batch spiked to 0.001 g/g of krypton was processed twice and reduced to an upper limit of 0.2 ppt.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Chromatographic separation of radioactive noble gases from xenon |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.astropartphys.2017.10.014 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2017.10.... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Xenon, Krypton, Adsorption, Chromatography, Gas Separation, Dark Matter |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1533324 |
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