Cosmogenic production of ${}^{37}$Ar in the context of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment

Abstract

We estimate the amount of ${}^{37}$Ar produced in natural xenon via cosmic ray-induced spallation, an inevitable consequence of the transportation and storage of xenon on the Earth's surface. We then calculate the resulting ${}^{37}$Ar concentration in a 10-tonne payload~(similar to that of the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment) assuming a representative schedule of xenon purification, storage and delivery to the underground facility. Using the spallation model by Silberberg and Tsao, the sea level production rate of ${}^{37}$Ar in natural xenon is estimated to be 0.024~atoms/kg/day. Assuming the xenon is successively purified to remove radioactive contaminants in 1-tonne batches at a rate of 1~tonne/month, the average ${}^{37}$Ar activity after 10~tonnes are purified and transported underground is 0.058--0.090~$\mu$Bq/kg, depending on the degree of argon removal during above-ground purification. Such cosmogenic ${}^{37}$Ar will appear as a noticeable background in the early science data, while decaying with a 35~day half-life. This newly-noticed production mechanism of ${}^{37}$Ar should be considered when planning for future liquid xenon-based experiments.

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• Excess Electronic Recoil Events in XENON1T
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• Cosmogenic production of ${}^{39}$Ar and ${}^{37}$Ar in argon
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• First Dark Matter Search Results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment
• A Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics
• A search for new physics in low-energy electron recoils from the first LZ exposure
• New constraint on neutrino magnetic moment and neutrino millicharge from LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter search results
• Background Determination for the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Dark Matter Experiment
• Reactor neutrino liquid xenon coherent elastic scattering experiment
• Study of cosmogenic activation above ground for the DarkSide-20k experiment
• Probing the Scalar WIMP-Pion Coupling with the first LUX-ZEPLIN data
• Search for New Physics via Low-Energy Electron Recoils with a 4.2 Tonne\times Year Exposure from the LZ Experiment