The LUX Prototype Detector: Heat Exchanger Development

TL;DR

This paper reports on the development and testing of a heat exchange purification system for a xenon detector prototype, achieving high efficiency and enabling long electron drift lengths crucial for dark matter detection.

Contribution

It introduces a novel heat exchange purification system for a xenon TPC, demonstrating high efficiency and effective electron drift length enhancement in a prototype.

Findings

Heat exchange efficiency above 94% at 42 slpm flow rate

Electron drift length over 1 meter achieved in two days

Sustained high electron lifetime during testing

Abstract

The LUX (Large Underground Xenon) detector is a two-phase xenon Time Projection Chamber (TPC) designed to search for WIMP-nucleon dark matter interactions. As with all noble element detectors, continuous purification of the detector medium is essential to produce a large ($>$1ms) electron lifetime; this is necessary for efficient measurement of the electron signal which in turn is essential for achieving robust discrimination of signal from background events. In this paper we describe the development of a novel purification system deployed in a prototype detector. The results from the operation of this prototype indicated heat exchange with an efficiency above 94% up to a flow rate of 42 slpm, allowing for an electron drift length greater than 1 meter to be achieved in approximately two days and sustained for the duration of the testing period.