Dresden 2013 – scientific programme
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 109: Experimentelle Techniken der Astroteilchenphysik 2
T 109.1: Group Report
Monday, March 4, 2013, 16:45–17:05, HSZ-101
A liquid argon scintillation veto for the Gerda experiment — •Anne Wegmann — Max-Planck Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
Gerda is an experiment to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge. Bare germanium detectors are operated in a cryostat with 65 m3 of liquid argon (LAr). To reach the aspired background index of 10−3 cts/(keV·kg·yr) for Phase II active background-suppression techniques will be applied, including an active liquid argon veto (LAr veto).
A light instrumentation of LAr installed in the LArGe test facility has demonstrated that the detection of argon scintillation light can be used to effectively suppress background events in the germanium, which simultaneously deposit energy in LAr. Based on these results, Gerda pursues several options for the light instrumentation, which have to be compatible with the stringent radiopurity requirements of the experiment and should provide a significant suppression of the background in the region of interest around Qββ at 2039 keV.
This talk gives an account of the competing design options under investigation in the Gerda collaboration. The design options using photomultiplier tubes (PMT) and silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) are discussed, together with their expected performance from Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, the progress of development is reported, along with the design criteria for light instrumentation in Gerda.