Abstract
Future direct searches for low-mass dark matter particles with germanium detectors, such as SuperCDMS SNOLAB, are expected to be limited by backgrounds from radioactive isotopes activated by cosmogenic radiation inside the germanium. There are limited experimental data available to constrain production rates and a large spread of theoretical predictions. We examine the calculation of expected production rates, and analyze data from the second run of the CDMS low ionization threshold experiment (CDMSlite) to estimate the rates for several isotopes. We model the measured CDMSlite spectrum and fit for contributions from tritium and other isotopes. Using the knowledge of the detector history, these results are converted to cosmogenic production rates at sea level. The production rates in atoms/(kg · day) are 74 ± 9 for 3H, 1.5 ± 0.7 for 55Fe, 17 ± 5 for 65Zn, and 30 ± 18 for 68Ge.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Astroparticle Physics |
Volume | 104 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Keywords
- CDMSlite
- Cosmogenic activation
- Dark matter
- Germanium detectors
- Supercdms