Self-shielding effect of a single phase liquid xenon detector for direct dark matter search

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a single phase liquid xenon detector effectively utilizes xenon's self-shielding property to reduce backgrounds, supporting its use in future large-scale dark matter searches.

Contribution

The study develops a prototype detector and establishes vertex and energy reconstruction methods to demonstrate self-shielding capabilities against external gamma rays.

Findings

Sufficient self-shielding power was achieved for future experiments.

Vertex and energy reconstruction methods were successfully established.

The detector design is scalable for larger dark matter search experiments.

Abstract

Liquid xenon is a suitable material for a dark matter search. For future large scale experiments, single phase detectors are attractive due to their simple configuration and scalability. However, in order to reduce backgrounds, they need to fully rely on liquid xenon's self-shielding property. A prototype detector was developed at Kamioka Observatory to establish vertex and energy reconstruction methods and to demonstrate the self-shielding power against gamma rays from outside of the detector. Sufficient self-shielding power for future experiments was obtained.