The KDK (potassium decay) experiment
P.C.F. Di Stefano, N. Brewer, A. Fija{\l}kowska, Z. Gai, K.C. Goetz,, R. Grzywacz, D. Hamm, P. Lechner, Y. Liu, E. Lukosi, M. Mancuso, C. Melcher,, J. Ninkovic, F. Petricca, B.C. Rasco, C. Rouleau, K.P. Rykaczewski, P., Squillari, L. Stand, D. Stracener, M. Stukel
TL;DR
This paper introduces the KDK experiment designed to measure the electron-capture decay of potassium-40 to better understand its background contribution in rare-event searches like dark matter detection.
Contribution
It proposes a novel experimental setup to measure the previously unmeasured decay branch of potassium-40, addressing a key uncertainty in background modeling.
Findings
Measurement of the electron-capture decay branch of ${}^{40}$K.
Improved understanding of potassium-40 background in dark matter experiments.
Development of a specialized detection system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Abstract
Potassium-40 (K) is a background in many rare-event searches and may well play a role in interpreting results from the DAMA dark-matter search. The electron-capture decay of K to the ground state of Ar has never been measured and contributes an unknown amount of background. The KDK (potassium decay) collaboration will measure this branching ratio using a K source, an X-ray detector, and the Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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Taxonomy
TopicsDark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena · Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies · Cosmology and Gravitation Theories