Astroparticle Physics with a Customized Low-Background Broad Energy Germanium Detector
Abstract
The MAJORANA Collaboration is building the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, a 60 kg array of high purity germanium detectors housed in an ultra-low background shield at the Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, SD. The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge while demonstrating the feasibility of a tonne-scale experiment. It may also carry out a dark matter search in the 1-10 GeV/c^2 mass range. We have found that customized Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detectors produced by Canberra have several desirable features for a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment, including low electronic noise, excellent pulse shape analysis capabilities, and simple fabrication. We have deployed a customized BEGe, the MAJORANA Low-Background BEGe at Kimballton (MALBEK), in a low-background cryostat and shield at the Kimballton Underground Research Facility in Virginia. This paper will focus on the detector characteristics and measurements that can be performed with such a radiation detector in a low-background environment.
- Publication:
-
arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- July 2010
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.1007.3231
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1007.3231
- Bibcode:
- 2010arXiv1007.3231M
- Keywords:
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- Nuclear Experiment
- E-Print:
- Submitted to NIMA Proceedings, SORMA XII. 9 pages, 4 figures