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Measurement of the Electron Recoil Band of the LUX Dark Matter Detector With a Tritium Calibration Sourc

Posted on:2015-08-27Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:University of Maryland, College ParkCandidate:Dobi, AttilaFull Text:PDF
GTID:1450390005982415Subject:Astrophysics
Abstract/Summary:
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment has recently placed the most stringent limit for the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-section. The WIMP search limit was aided by an internal tritium source resulting in an unprecedented calibration and understanding of the electronic recoil background. Here we discuss corrections to the signals in LUX, the energy scale calibration and present the methodology for extracting fundamental properties of electron recoils in liquid xenon. The tritium calibration is used to measure the ionization and scintillation yield of xenon down to 1 keV, the results is compared to other experiments. Recombination probability and its fluctuation is measured from 1 to 1000 keV, using betas from tritium and Compton scatters from an external 137Cs source. Finally, the tritium source is described and the most recent results for ER discrimination in LUX is presented.
Keywords/Search Tags:Tritium
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