Measurement of ambient radon progeny decay rates and energy spectra in liquid argon using the MicroBooNE detector
P. Abratenko (Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA); O. Alterkait (Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA); D. Andrade Aldana (Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, Illinois 60616, USA); L. Arellano (The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom); J. Asaadi (University of Texas, Arlington, Texas 76019, USA); et al - Show all 188 authors
We report measurements of radon progeny in liquid argon within the MicroBooNE time projection chamber (LArTPC). The presence of specific radon daughters in MicroBooNE’s 85 metric tons of active liquid argon bulk is probed with newly developed charge-based low-energy reconstruction tools and analysis techniques to detect correlated radioactive decays. Special datasets taken during periods of active radon doping enable new demonstrations of the calorimetric capabilities of single-phase neutrino LArTPCs for and particles with electron-equivalent energies ranging from 0.1 to 3.0 MeV. By applying detection algorithms to data recorded over a 46-day period, no statistically significant presence of radioactive is detected, and a limit on the activity is placed at at the 95% confidence level. This bulk radiopurity limit—the first ever reported for a liquid argon detector incorporating liquid-phase purification—is then further discussed in relation to the targeted upper limit of on bulk activity for the DUNE neutrino detector.