Göttingen 2012 – scientific programme
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 113: Experimentelle Techniken der Astroteilchenphysik 1
T 113.7: Talk
Monday, February 27, 2012, 18:15–18:30, VG 0.110
Development of photomultiplier light instrumentation for the GERDA experiment — Mark Heisel, Karl-Tasso Knoepfle, Anatoly Smolnikov, and •Anne Wegmann — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg
Key to the GERDA experiment is the reduction of the background in the region of interest at Qβ β (2039 keV). The LArGe test facility has shown that the background is effectively suppressed when argon scintillation light is used as an anti-coincidence veto. As a result, the installation of an active liquid argon (LAr) veto in GERDA is pursued by the collaboration.
This talk reports about the work in preparation for the light instrumentation of GERDA using photomultipliers. The design of such a veto follows several experimental constraints, e.g. the dimensions of the cryostat, liquid-argon and photomultiplier properties. Monte Carlo simulations are used to optimize the veto dimensions for background suppression efficiency, taking instrumentation induced background into account. First estimates for the veto efficiency of the proposed design are discussed.
As the photomultipliers have to fullfill several requirements for the use inside the GERDA cryostat, a test-stand for photomultiplier characterization and their selection for stable operation in liquid argon has been built at MPIK. First results of these tests will be presented.