Intrinsic backgrounds from Rn and Kr in the XENON100 experiment

In this paper, we describe the XENON100 data analyses used to assess the target-intrinsic background sources radon ([InlineMediaObject not available: see fulltext.]), thoron ([InlineMediaObject not available: see fulltext.]) and krypton ([InlineMediaObject not available: see fulltext.]). We detail the event selections of high-energy alpha particles and decay-specific delayed coincidences. We derive distributions of the individual radionuclides inside the detector and quantify their abundances during the main three science runs of the experiment over a period of ∼4years, from January 2010 to January 2014. We compare our results to external measurements of radon emanation and krypton concentr…

First Axion Results from the XENON100 Experiment

We present the first results of searches for axions and axion-like-particles with the XENON100 experiment. The axion-electron coupling constant, $g_{Ae}$, has been tested by exploiting the axio-electric effect in liquid xenon. A profile likelihood analysis of 224.6 live days $\times$ 34 kg exposure has shown no evidence for a signal. By rejecting $g_{Ae}$, larger than $7.7 \times 10^{-12}$ (90% CL) in the solar axion search, we set the best limit to date on this coupling. In the frame of the DFSZ and KSVZ models, we exclude QCD axions heavier than 0.3 eV/c$^2$ and 80 eV/c$^2$, respectively. For axion-like-particles, under the assumption that they constitute the whole abundance of dark matte…

Results from a calibration of XENON100 using a source of dissolved radon-220

A Rn 220 source is deployed on the XENON100 dark matter detector in order to address the challenges in calibration of tonne-scale liquid noble element detectors. We show that the Pb 212 beta emission can be used for low-energy electronic recoil calibration in searches for dark matter. The isotope spreads throughout the entire active region of the detector, and its activity naturally decays below background level within a week after the source is closed. We find no increase in the activity of the troublesome Rn 222 background after calibration. Alpha emitters are also distributed throughout the detector and facilitate calibration of its response to Rn 222 . Using the delayed coincidence of R…

Online 222 Rn removal by cryogenic distillation in the XENON100 experiment

We describe the purification of xenon from traces of the radioactive noble gas radon using a cryogenic distillation column. The distillation column was integrated into the gas purification loop of the XENON100 detector for online radon removal. This enabled us to significantly reduce the constant 222 Rn background originating from radon emanation. After inserting an auxiliary 222 Rn emanation source in the gas loop, we determined a radon reduction factor of R>27 (95% C.L.) for the distillation column by monitoring the 222 Rn activity concentration inside the XENON100 detector.

Limits to the muon flux from WIMP annihilation in the center of the Earth with the AMANDA detector

A search for nearly vertical up-going muon-neutrinos from neutralino annihilations in the center of the Earth has been performed with the AMANDA-B10 neutrino detector. The data sample collected in 130.1 days of live-time in 1997, ~10^9 events, has been analyzed for this search. No excess over the expected atmospheric neutrino background is oberved. An upper limit at 90% confidence level on the annihilation rate of neutralinos in the center of the Earth is obtained as a function of the neutralino mass in the range 100 GeV-5000 GeV, as well as the corresponding muon flux limit.

Calibration of high voltages at the ppm level by the difference of $$^{83{\mathrm{m}}}$$ 83m Kr conversion electron lines at the KATRIN experiment

The neutrino mass experiment KATRIN requires a stability of 3 ppm for the retarding potential at − 18.6 kV of the main spectrometer. To monitor the stability, two custom-made ultra-precise high-voltage dividers were developed and built in cooperation with the German national metrology institute Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). Until now, regular absolute calibration of the voltage dividers required bringing the equipment to the specialised metrology laboratory. Here we present a new method based on measuring the energy difference of two $$^{83{\mathrm{m}}}$$ 83m Kr conversion electron lines with the KATRIN setup, which was demonstrated during KATRIN’s commissioning measurements …

Results from the AMANDA telescope

We present results from the AMANDA high energy neutrino telescope located at the South Pole. They include measurements of the atmospheric neutrino flux, search for UHE point sources, and diffuse sources producing electromagnetic/hadronic showers at the detector or close to it.

Constraining the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross sections with XENON1T

We report the first experimental results on spin-dependent elastic weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) nucleon scattering from the XENON1T dark matter search experiment. The analysis uses the full ton year exposure of XENON1T to constrain the spin-dependent proton-only and neutron-only cases. No significant signal excess is observed, and a profile likelihood ratio analysis is used to set exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon interactions. This includes the most stringent constraint to date on the WIMP-neutron cross section, with a minimum of 6.3 × 10−42 cm2 at 30 GeV/c2 and 90% confidence level. The results are compared with those from collider searches and used to exclude new paramet…

A low-mass dark matter search using ionization signals in XENON100

We perform a low-mass dark matter search using an exposure of 30\,kg$\times$yr with the XENON100 detector. By dropping the requirement of a scintillation signal and using only the ionization signal to determine the interaction energy, we lowered the energy threshold for detection to 0.7\,keV for nuclear recoils. No dark matter detection can be claimed because a complete background model cannot be constructed without a primary scintillation signal. Instead, we compute an upper limit on the WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section under the assumption that every event passing our selection criteria could be a signal event. Using an energy interval from 0.7\,keV to 9.1\,keV, we derive a limit on …

Erratum: Study of the electromagnetic background in the XENON100 experiment [Phys. Rev. D 83, 082001 (2011)]

Search for Coherent Elastic Scattering of Solar B8 Neutrinos in the XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment

We report on a search for nuclear recoil signals from solar $^8$B neutrinos elastically scattering off xenon nuclei in XENON1T data, lowering the energy threshold from 2.6 keV to 1.6 keV. We develop a variety of novel techniques to limit the resulting increase in backgrounds near the threshold. No significant $^8$B neutrino-like excess is found in an exposure of 0.6 t $\times$ y. For the first time, we use the non-detection of solar neutrinos to constrain the light yield from 1-2 keV nuclear recoils in liquid xenon, as well as non-standard neutrino-quark interactions. Finally, we improve upon world-leading constraints on dark matter-nucleus interactions for dark matter masses between 3 GeV/…

HITRAP – a facility for experiments on heavy highly charged ions and on antiprotons

HITRAP is a facility for very slow highly-charged heavy ions at GSI. HITRAP uses the GSI relativistic ion beams, the Experimental Storage Ring ESR for electron cooling and deceleration to 4 MeV/u, and consists of a combination of an interdigital H-mode (IH) structure with a radiofrequency quadrupole structure for further deceleration to 6 keV/u, and a Penning trap for accumulation and cooling to low temperatures. Finally, ion beams with low emittance will be delivered to a large variety of atomic and nuclear physics experiments. Presently, HITRAP is in the commissioning phase. The deceleration of heavy-ion beam from the ESR storage ring to an energy of 500 keV/u with the IH structure has be…

Online $$^{222}$$ 222 Rn removal by cryogenic distillation in the XENON100 experiment

Search for inelastic scattering of WIMP dark matter in XENON1T

We report the results of a search for the inelastic scattering of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Scattering off $^{129}$Xe is the most sensitive probe of inelastic WIMP interactions, with a signature of a 39.6 keV de-excitation photon detected simultaneously with the nuclear recoil. Using an exposure of 0.89 tonne-years, we find no evidence of inelastic WIMP scattering with a significance of more than 2$\sigma$. A profile-likelihood ratio analysis is used to set upper limits on the cross-section of WIMP-nucleus interactions. We exclude new parameter space for WIMPs heavier than 100 GeV/c${}^2$, with the strongest upper limit of $3.3 \time…

Material screening and selection for XENON100

Results of the extensive radioactivity screening campaign to identify materials for the construction of XENON100 are reported. This Dark Matter search experiment is operated underground at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), Italy. Several ultra sensitive High Purity Germanium detectors (HPGe) have been used for gamma ray spectrometry. Mass spectrometry has been applied for a few low mass plastic samples. Detailed tables with the radioactive contaminations of all screened samples are presented, together with the implications for XENON100.

Recent results from AMANDA II

Abstract We present new data taken with the AMANDA-II neutrino telescope array. The AMANDA-II upgrade was completed at the beginning of 2000. It significantly extends the sensitivity of the 10-string AMANDA-B10 detector to high- and ultrahigh-energy neutrino fluxes into regions of interest for probing current astrophysical models which remain unexplored by other experiments.

Improved Upper Limit on the Neutrino Mass from a Direct Kinematic Method by KATRIN

We report on the neutrino mass measurement result from the first four-week science run of the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment KATRIN in spring 2019. Beta-decay electrons from a high-purity gaseous molecular tritium source are energy analyzed by a high-resolution MAC-E filter. A fit of the integrated electron spectrum over a narrow interval around the kinematic end point at 18.57 keV gives an effective neutrino mass square value of (−1.0−1.1+0.9) eV2. From this, we derive an upper limit of 1.1 eV (90% confidence level) on the absolute mass scale of neutrinos. This value coincides with the KATRIN sensitivity. It improves upon previous mass limits from kinematic measurements by almost a …

First Results on the Scalar WIMP-Pion Coupling, Using the XENON1T Experiment

We present first results on the scalar coupling of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) to pions from 1 t yr of exposure with the XENON1T experiment. This interaction is generated when the WIMP couples to a virtual pion exchanged between the nucleons in a nucleus. In contrast to most nonrelativistic operators, these pion-exchange currents can be coherently enhanced by the total number of nucleons and therefore may dominate in scenarios where spin-independent WIMP-nucleon interactions are suppressed. Moreover, for natural values of the couplings, they dominate over the spin-dependent channel due to their coherence in the nucleus. Using the signal model of this new WIMP-pion channel, …

Response of the XENON100 dark matter detector to nuclear recoils

Results from the nuclear recoil calibration of the XENON100 dark matter detector installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), Italy are presented. Data from measurements with an external 241AmBe neutron source are compared with a detailed Monte Carlo simulation which is used to extract the energy dependent charge-yield Qy and relative scintillation efficiency Leff. A very good level of absolute spectral matching is achieved in both observable signal channels - scintillation S1 and ionization S2 - along with agreement in the 2-dimensional particle discrimination space. The results confirm the validity of the derived signal acceptance in earlier reported dark matte…

Removing krypton from xenon by cryogenic distillation to the ppq level

The XENON1T experiment aims for the direct detection of dark matter in a detector filled with 3.3 tons of liquid xenon. In order to achieve the desired sensitivity, the background induced by radioactive decays inside the detector has to be sufficiently low. One major contributor is the β -emitter 85 Kr which is present in the xenon. For XENON1T a concentration of natural krypton in xenon natKr/Xe<200ppq (parts per quadrillion, 1 ppq =10−15mol/mol) is required. In this work, the design, construction and test of a novel cryogenic distillation column using the common McCabe–Thiele approach is described. The system demonstrated a krypton reduction factor of 6.4⋅10⁵ with thermodynamic stabili…

XENON100 dark matter results from a combination of 477 live days

We report on WIMP search results of the XENON100 experiment, combining three runs summing up to 477 live days from January 2010 to January 2014. Data from the first two runs were already published. A blind analysis was applied to the last run recorded between April 2013 and January 2014 prior to combining the results. The ultra-low electromagnetic background of the experiment, ~$5 \times 10^{-3}$ events/(keV$_{\mathrm{ee}}\times$kg$\times$day) before electronic recoil rejection, together with the increased exposure of 48 kg $\times$ yr improves the sensitivity. A profile likelihood analysis using an energy range of (6.6 - 43.3) keV$_{\mathrm{nr}}$ sets a limit on the elastic, spin-independe…

Search for WIMP Inelastic Scattering off Xenon Nuclei with XENON100

We present the first constraints on the spin-dependent, inelastic scattering cross section of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) on nucleons from XENON100 data with an exposure of 7.64 ×103 kg .days . XENON100 is a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber with 62 kg of active mass, operated at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy and designed to search for nuclear recoils from WIMP-nucleus interactions. Here we explore inelastic scattering, where a transition to a low-lying excited nuclear state of Xe 129 is induced. The experimental signature is a nuclear recoil observed together with the prompt deexcitation photon. We see no evidence for such inelastic WIMP-Xe…

Search for Electronic Recoil Event Rate Modulation with 4 Years of XENON100 Data

We report on a search for electronic recoil event rate modulation signatures in the XENON100 data accumulated over a period of 4 years, from January 2010 to January 2014. A profile likelihood method, which incorporates the stability of the XENON100 detector and the known electronic recoil background model, is used to quantify the significance of periodicity in the time distribution of events. There is a weak modulation signature at a period of $431^{+16}_{-14}$ days in the low energy region of $(2.0-5.8)$ keV in the single scatter event sample, with a global significance of $1.9\,\sigma$, however no other more significant modulation is observed. The expected annual modulation of a dark matt…

Material radioassay and selection for the XENON1T dark matter experiment

The XENON1T dark matter experiment aims to detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) through low-energy interactions with xenon atoms. To detect such a rare event necessitates the use of radiopure materials to minimize the number of background events within the expected WIMP signal region. In this paper we report the results of an extensive material radioassay campaign for the XENON1T experiment. Using gamma-ray spectroscopy and mass spectrometry techniques, systematic measurements of trace radioactive impurities in over one hundred samples within a wide range of materials were performed. The measured activities allowed for stringent selection and placement of materials during the…

Gamma-induced background in the KATRIN main spectrometer

The KATRIN experiment aims to measure the effective electron antineutrino mass $$m_{\overline{\nu }_e}$$ mν¯e with a sensitivity of $${0.2}\,{\hbox {eV}/\hbox {c}^2}$$ 0.2eV/c2 using a gaseous tritium source combined with the MAC-E filter technique. A low background rate is crucial to achieving the proposed sensitivity, and dedicated measurements have been performed to study possible sources of background electrons. In this work, we test the hypothesis that gamma radiation from external radioactive sources significantly increases the rate of background events created in the main spectrometer (MS) and observed in the focal-plane detector. Using detailed simulations of the gamma flux in the e…

Search for Event Rate Modulation in XENON100 Electronic Recoil Data

We have searched for periodic variations of the electronic recoil event rate in the (2-6) keV energy range recorded between February 2011 and March 2012 with the XENON100 detector, adding up to 224.6 live days in total. Following a detailed study to establish the stability of the detector and its background contributions during this run, we performed an un-binned profile likelihood analysis to identify any periodicity up to 500 days. We find a global significance of less than 1 sigma for all periods suggesting no statistically significant modulation in the data. While the local significance for an annual modulation is 2.8 sigma, the analysis of a multiple-scatter control sample and the phas…

$^{222}$Rn emanation measurements for the XENON1T experiment

The selection of low-radioactive construction materials is of utmost importance for the success of low-energy rare event search experiments. Besides radioactive contaminants in the bulk, the emanation of radioactive radon atoms from material surfaces attains increasing relevance in the effort to further reduce the background of such experiments. In this work, we present the $^{222}$Rn emanation measurements performed for the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Together with the bulk impurity screening campaign, the results enabled us to select the radio-purest construction materials, targeting a $^{222}$Rn activity concentration of 10 $\mu$Bq/kg in 3.2 t of xenon. The knowledge of the distribut…

Dark Matter Search Results from a One Ton-Year Exposure of XENON1T

We report on a search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) using 278.8 days of data collected with the XENON1T experiment at LNGS. XENON1T utilizes a liquid xenon time projection chamber with a fiducial mass of $(1.30 \pm 0.01)$ t, resulting in a 1.0 t$\times$yr exposure. The energy region of interest, [1.4, 10.6] $\mathrm{keV_{ee}}$ ([4.9, 40.9] $\mathrm{keV_{nr}}$), exhibits an ultra-low electron recoil background rate of $(82\substack{+5 \\ -3}\textrm{ (sys)}\pm3\textrm{ (stat)})$ events/$(\mathrm{t}\times\mathrm{yr}\times\mathrm{keV_{ee}})$. No significant excess over background is found and a profile likelihood analysis parameterized in spatial and energy dimensions exclude…

The XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment

The XENON1T experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is the first WIMP dark matter detector operating with a liquid xenon target mass above the ton-scale. Out of its 3.2 t liquid xenon inventory, 2.0 t constitute the active target of the dual-phase time projection chamber. The scintillation and ionization signals from particle interactions are detected with low-background photomultipliers. This article describes the XENON1T instrument and its subsystems as well as strategies to achieve an unprecedented low background level. First results on the detector response and the performance of the subsystems are also presented. © 2017, The Author(s).

DARWIN: Towards the ultimate dark matter detector

DARk matter WImp search with liquid xenoN (DARWIN) will be an experiment for the direct detection of dark matter using a multi-ton liquid xenon time projection chamber at its core. Its primary goal will be to explore the experimentally accessible parameter space for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) in a wide mass-range, until neutrino interactions with the target become an irreducible background. The prompt scintillation light and the charge signals induced by particle interactions in the xenon will be observed by VUV sensitive, ultra-low background photosensors. Besides its excellent sensitivity to WIMPs above a mass of 5 GeV/c2, such a detector with its large mass, low-energy …

Removing krypton from xenon by cryogenic distillation to the ppq level

The XENON1T experiment aims for the direct detection of dark matter in a detector filled with 3.3 tons of liquid xenon. In order to achieve the desired sensitivity, the background induced by radioactive decays inside the detector has to be sufficiently low. One major contributor is the β-emitter 85Kr which is present in the xenon. For XENON1T a concentration of natural krypton in xenon natKr/Xe<200ppq (parts per quadrillion, 1ppq=10-15mol/mol) is required. In this work, the design, construction and test of a novel cryogenic distillation column using the common McCabe–Thiele approach is described. The system demonstrated a krypton reduction factor of 6.4 · 10 5 with thermodynamic stability a…

Online ^{222}Rn removal by cryogenic distillation in the XENON100 experiment

International audience; We describe the purification of xenon from traces of the radioactive noble gas radon using a cryogenic distillation column. The distillation column was integrated into the gas purification loop of the XENON100 detector for online radon removal. This enabled us to significantly reduce the constant$^{222}$ Rn background originating from radon emanation. After inserting an auxiliary$^{222}$ Rn emanation source in the gas loop, we determined a radon reduction factor of $R\,>\,27$ (95% C.L.) for the distillation column by monitoring the$^{222}$ Rn activity concentration inside the XENON100 detector.

Impact of a cryogenic baffle system on the suppression of radon-induced background in the KATRIN Pre-Spectrometer

The KATRIN experiment will determine the effective electron anti-neutrino mass with a sensitivity of 200 meV/c$^2$ at 90% CL. The energy analysis of tritium $\beta$-decay electrons will be performed by a tandem setup of electrostatic retarding spectrometers which have to be operated at very low background levels of $<10^{-2}$ counts per second. This benchmark rate can be exceeded by background processes resulting from the emanation of single $^{219,220}$Rn atoms from the inner spectrometer surface and an array of non-evaporable getter strips used as main vacuum pump. Here we report on a the impact of a cryogenic technique to reduce this radon-induced background in electrostatic spectrometer…

First Dark Matter Search Results from the XENON1T Experiment

We report the first dark matter search results from XENON1T, a ∼2000-kg-target-mass dual-phase (liquid-gas) xenon time projection chamber in operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy and the first ton-scale detector of this kind. The blinded search used 34.2 live days of data acquired between November 2016 and January 2017. Inside the (1042±12)-kg fiducial mass and in the [5,40] keVnr energy range of interest for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter searches, the electronic recoil background was (1.93±0.25)×10-4 events/(kg×day×keVee), the lowest ever achieved in such a dark matter detector. A profile likelihood analysis shows that the data are consisten…

Energy calibration and monitoring of the KATRIN experiment

A new high precision voltage divider has been built for monitoring the analysing potential of the KATRIN main spectrometer. In addition a condensed 83mKr calibration source has been set up at the modified 1 eV resolving Mainz spectrometer, our measurements show that energy calibration and monitoring for KATRIN is feasible at the few ppm level.

Search for two-neutrino double electron capture of $^{124}$Xe with XENON100

Two-neutrino double electron capture is a rare nuclear decay where two electrons are simultaneously captured from the atomic shell. For $^{124}$Xe this process has not yet been observed and its detection would provide a new reference for nuclear matrix element calculations. We have conducted a search for two-neutrino double electron capture from the K-shell of $^{124}$Xe using 7636 kg$\cdot$d of data from the XENON100 dark matter detector. Using a Bayesian analysis we observed no significant excess above background, leading to a lower 90 % credibility limit on the half-life $T_{1/2}&gt;6.5\times10^{20}$ yr. We also evaluated the sensitivity of the XENON1T experiment, which is currently bein…