Dresden 2013 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 66: Astroteilchenphysik

HK 66.7: Talk

Thursday, March 7, 2013, 15:45–16:00, HSZ-401

Investigation and development of the suppression methods of the ⁴²K background in LArGe. — •Alexey Lubashevskiy — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany

GERDA is an ultra-low background experiment aimed for the neutrinoless double beta decay search. The search is performed using HPGe detectors operated in liquid argon (LAr). One of the most dangerous backgrounds in GERDA is the background from ⁴²K which is a daughter isotope of cosmogenically produced ⁴²Ar. ⁴²K ions are collected towards to the detector by the electric field of the detector. Estimation of the background contribution and development of the suppression methods were performed in the low background test facility LArGe. For this purpose encapsulated HPGe and bare BEGe detectors were operated in 1m³ of LAr in the LArGe setup. It is equipped with scintillation veto, so particles which deposit part of their energy in LAr can be detected by 9 PMTs. In order to better understand background and to increase statistics the LAr of LArGe was spiked with specially produced ⁴²Ar. All these investigations allowed us to estimate background contribution from ⁴²K and demonstrate the possibility to suppress it in future measurements in GERDA Phase II.