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Mitigation of Backgrounds from Cosmogenic ¹³⁷Xe in Xenon Gas Experiments using ³He Neutron Capture

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arxiv 2001.11147 v2 pith:UIFFLFWP submitted 2020-01-30 physics.ins-det hep-ex

Mitigation of Backgrounds from Cosmogenic ¹³⁷Xe in Xenon Gas Experiments using ³He Neutron Capture

classification physics.ins-det hep-ex
keywords captureexperimentsneutronsxenonactivationbetadecaydetector
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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\Xe{136} is used as the target medium for many experiments searching for \bbnonu. Despite underground operation, cosmic muons that reach the laboratory can produce spallation neutrons causing activation of detector materials. A potential background that is difficult to veto using muon tagging comes in the form of \Xe{137} created by the capture of neutrons on \Xe{136}. This isotope decays via beta decay with a half-life of 3.8 minutes and a \Qb\ of $\sim$4.16 MeV. This work proposes and explores the concept of adding a small percentage of \He{3} to xenon as a means to capture thermal neutrons and reduce the number of activations in the detector volume. When using this technique we find the contamination from \Xe{137} activation can be reduced to negligible levels in tonne and multi-tonne scale high pressure gas xenon neutrinoless double beta decay experiments running at any depth in an underground laboratory.

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