학술논문
Towards a neutrino-limited dark matter search with crystalline xenon
Document Type
Working Paper
Source
Subject
Language
Abstract
Experiments searching for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter are now detecting background events from solar neutrino-electron scattering. However, the dominant background in state-of-the-art experiments such as LZ and XENONnT is beta decays from radon contamination. In spite of careful detector material screening, radon progenitor atoms are ubiquitous and long-lived, and radon is extremely soluble in liquid xenon. We propose a change of phase and demonstrate that crystalline xenon offers more than a factor x500 exclusion against radon ingress, compared with the liquid state. This level of radon exclusion would allow crystallized versions of existing experiments to probe spin-independent cross sections near 1e-47 cm2 in roughly 11 years, as opposed to the 35~years required otherwise.