The LUX Prototype Detector: Heat Exchanger Development

Abstract

The LUX (Large Underground Xenon) detector is a two-phase xenon Time Projection Chamber (TPC) designed to search for WIMP-nucleon dark matter interactions. As with all noble element detectors, continuous purification of the detector medium is essential to produce a large ($>$1ms) electron lifetime; this is necessary for efficient measurement of the electron signal which in turn is essential for achieving robust discrimination of signal from background events. In this paper we describe the development of a novel purification system deployed in a prototype detector. The results from the operation of this prototype indicated heat exchange with an efficiency above 94% up to a flow rate of 42 slpm, allowing for an electron drift length greater than 1 meter to be achieved in approximately two days and sustained for the duration of the testing period.

12 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (4)

• The XENON100 Dark Matter Experiment
• A simple high-sensitivity technique for purity analysis of xenon gas
• Study of a zirconium getter for purification of xenon gas
• Xenon Recirculation-Purification with a Heat Exchanger

Cited by in corpus (7)

• The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) Experiment
• Projected WIMP sensitivity of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment
• Radiogenic and Muon-Induced Backgrounds in the LUX Dark Matter Detector
• Calibration, event reconstruction, data analysis and limits calculation for the LUX dark matter experiment
• Data Acquisition and Readout System for the LUX Dark Matter Experiment
• Design and construction of Xenoscope -- a full-scale vertical demonstrator for the DARWIN observatory
• The LUX Dark Matter Search -- Status Update