Chromatographic separation of radioactive noble gases from xenon

LUX Collaboration, D. S. Akerib, H. M. Araújo, X. Bai, A. J. Bailey, J. Balajthy, P. Beltrame, E. P. Bernard, A. Bernstein, T. P. Biesiadzinski, E. M. Boulton, R. Bramante, S. B. Cahn, M. C. Carmona-Benitez, C. Chan, A. A. Chiller, C. Chiller, T. Coffey, A. Currie, J. E. CutterT. J. R. Davison, A. Dobi, J. E. Y. Dobson, E. Druszkiewicz, B. N. Edwards, C. H. Faham, S. Fiorucci, R. J. Gaitskell, V. M. Gehman, C. Ghag, K. R. Gibson, M. G. D. Gilchriese, C. R. Hall, M. Hanhardt, S. J. Haselschwardt, S. A. Hertel, D. P. Hogan, M. Horn, D. Q. Huang, C. M. Ignarra, M. Ihm, R. G. Jacobsen, W. Ji, K. Kamdin, K. Kazkaz, D. Khaitan, R. Knoche, N. A. Larsen, C. Lee, B. G. Lenardo, K. T. Lesko, A. Lindote, M. I. Lopes, A. Manalaysay, R. L. Mannino, M. F. Marzioni, D. N. McKinsey, D. -M. Mei, J. Mock, M. Moongweluwan, J. A. Morad, Alexander Murphy, C. Nehrkorn, H. N. Nelson, F. Neves, K. O'Sullivan, K. C. Oliver-Mallory, K. J. Palladino, E. K. Pease, K. Pech, P. Phelps, L. Reichhart, C. Rhyne, S. Shaw, T. A. Shutt, C. Silva, V. N. Solovov, P. Sorensen, S. Stephenson, T. J. Sumner, M. Szydagis, D. J. Taylor, W. Taylor, B. P. Tennyson, P. A. Terman, D. R. Tiedt, W. H. To, M. Tripathi, L. Tvrznikova, S. Uvarov, J. R. Verbus, R. C. Webb, J. T. White, T. J. Whitis, M. S. Witherell, F. L. H. Wolfs, K. Yazdani, S. K. Young, C. Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

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 $^{85}$Kr and $^{39}$Ar that are not removed by the {\em 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 exmperiment. 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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)80-87
JournalAstroparticle Physics
Volume97
Early online date31 Oct 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2018

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • physics.ins-det

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