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Low-energy radon backgrounds from electrode grids in dual-phase xenon TPCs

D. S. Akerib1,2, A. K. Al Musalhi3, F. Alder3, B. J. Almquist4, S. Alsum5, C. S. Amarasinghe6, A. Ames1,2, T. J. Anderson1,2, N. Angelides7 et al. (LZ Collaboration, LUX Collaboration)

T. J. Anderson1,2, N. Angelides7, H. M. Araújo7, J. E. Armstrong8, M. Arthurs1,2, X. Bai9, A. Baker7,10, J. Balajthy11, S. Balashov12, J. Bang4, J. W. Bargemann6, E. E. Barillier13,14, A. Baxter15, K. Beattie16, T. Benson5, E. P. Bernard17, A. Bernstein18, A. Bhatti8, T. P. Biesiadzinski1,2, H. J. Birch13,14, E. Bishop19, G. M. Blockinger20, E. M. Boulton17,21, B. Boxer11, C. A. J. Brew12, P. Brás22, S. Burdin15, D. Byram23,24, M. C. Carmona-Benitez25, M. Carter15, C. Chan4, A. Chawla26, H. Chen16, Y. T. Chin25, N. I. Chott9, S. Contreras27, M. V. Converse28, R. Coronel1,2, A. Cottle3, G. Cox24, D. Curran24, J. E. Cutter11, C. E. Dahl29,30, I. Darlington3, S. Dave3, A. David3, J. Delgaudio24, S. Dey31, L. de Viveiros25, L. Di Felice7, C. Ding4, J. E. Y. Dobson10, E. Druszkiewicz28, S. Dubey4, C. L. Dunbar24, S. R. Eriksen32, A. Fan1,2, N. M. Fearon31, N. Fieldhouse31, S. Fiorucci16, H. Flaecher32, E. D. Fraser15, T. M. A. Fruth33, P. W. Gaemers1,2, R. J. Gaitskell4, A. Geffre24, J. Genovesi25,9, C. Ghag3, J. Ghamsari10, A. Ghosh20, S. Ghosh1,2, R. Gibbons16,17, M. G. D. Gilchriese16, S. Gokhale34, J. Green31, M. G. D. van der Grinten12, C. Gwilliam15, J. J. Haiston9, C. R. Hall8, T. Hall15, R. N. Hampp14, E. Hartigan-O’Connor4, S. J. Haselschwardt13, M. A. Hernandez13,14, S. A. Hertel35, D. P. Hogan17, G. J. Homenides36, M. Horn24, D. Q. Huang27, D. Hunt31,37, C. M. Ignarra1,2, R. G. Jacobsen17, E. Jacquet7, O. Jahangir3, R. S. James3,*, K. Jenkins22, W. Ji1,2, A. C. Kaboth26, A. C. Kamaha27, K. Kamdin16,17, M. K. Kannichankandy20, K. Kazkaz18, D. Khaitan28, A. Khazov12, J. Kim6, Y. D. Kim38, J. Kingston11, D. Kodroff16,25, E. V. Korolkova39, H. Kraus31, S. Kravitz37, L. Kreczko32, V. A. Kudryavtsev39, C. Lawes10, E. Leason19, D. S. Leonard38, K. T. Lesko16, C. Levy20, J. Liao4, J. Lin16,17, A. Lindote22, R. Linehan1,2,†, W. H. Lippincott6, J. Long29, M. I. Lopes22, W. Lorenzon13, C. Lu4, S. Luitz1,2, W. Ma31, V. Mahajan32, P. A. Majewski12, A. Manalaysay16, R. L. Mannino18, N. Marangou7, R. J. Matheson26, C. Maupin24, M. E. McCarthy28, G. McDowell13, D. N. McKinsey16,17, J. McLaughlin29, J. B. McLaughlin3, R. McMonigle20, D.-M. Mei23, B. Mitra29, E. Mizrachi8,18, M. E. Monzani1,2,40, K. Morå14, J. A. Morad11, E. Morrison9, B. J. Mount41, M. Murdy35, A. St. J. Murphy19, A. Naylor39, C. Nehrkorn6, H. N. Nelson6, F. Neves22, A. Nguyen19, A. Nilima19, C. L. O’Brien37, F. H. O’Shea1, I. Olcina16,17, K. C. Oliver-Mallory7, J. Orpwood39, K. Y. Oyulmaz19, K. J. Palladino31, N. J. Pannifer32, N. Parveen20, S. J. Patton16, B. Penning13,14, G. Pereira22, E. Perry16, T. Pershing18, A. Piepke36, S. S. Poudel9, Y. Qie28, J. Reichenbacher9, C. A. Rhyne4, Q. Riffard16,17, G. R. C. Rischbieter13,14, E. Ritchey8, H. S. Riyat19, R. Rosero34, P. Rossiter39, N. J. Rowe31, T. Rushton39, D. Rynders24, S. Saltão22, D. Santone26,31, A. B. M. R. Sazzad36,18, R. W. Schnee9, G. Sehr37, B. Shafer8, S. Shaw19, W. Sherman1,2, K. Shi13, T. Shutt1,2, C. Silva22, G. Sinev9, J. Siniscalco3, A. M. Slivar36, R. Smith16,17, A. M. Softley-Brown39, M. Solmaz6, V. N. Solovov22, P. Sorensen16, J. Soria16,17, A. Stevens3,7, T. J. Sumner7, A. Swain31, N. Swanson4, M. Szydagis20, D. J. Taylor24, R. Taylor7, W. C. Taylor4, B. P. Tennyson21, P. A. Terman42, D. R. Tiedt24, M. Timalsina16, W. H. To43, Z. Tong7, D. R. Tovey39, J. Tranter39, M. Trask6, K. Trengove20, M. Tripathi11, L. Tvrznikova16,17, U. Utku3, A. Usón19, A. Vacheret7, A. C. Vaitkus4, O. Valentino7, V. Velan16, A. Wang1,2, J. J. Wang36, Y. Wang16,17, R. C. Webb42, L. Weeldreyer6, J. T. White42, T. J. Whitis6, K. Wild25, M. Williams16, J. Winnicki1, M. S. Witherell16, L. Wolf26, F. L. H. Wolfs28, S. Woodford15, D. Woodward16, C. J. Wright32, Q. Xia16,44, X. Xiang4, J. Xu18,‡, Y. Xu27, M. Yeh34, D. Yeum8, J. Young10, W. Zha25, C. Zhang23, H. Zhang19, T. Zhang16, and Y. Zhou7 (LZ Collaboration, LUX Collaboration)

  • 1SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025-7015, USA
  • 2Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4085, USA
  • 3University College London (UCL), Department of Physics and Astronomy, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
  • 4Brown University, Department of Physics, Providence, Rhode Island 02912-9037, USA
  • 5University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Physics, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1390, USA
  • 6University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Physics, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9530, USA
  • 7Imperial College London, Physics Department, Blackett Laboratory, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
  • 8University of Maryland, Department of Physics, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA
  • 9South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701-3901, USA
  • 10King’s College London, King’s College London, Department of Physics, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
  • 11University of California, Davis, Department of Physics, Davis, California 95616-5270, USA
  • 12STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
  • 13University of Michigan, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA
  • 14University of Zurich, Department of Physics, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 15University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, Liverpool L69 7ZE, United Kingdom
  • 16Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California 94720-8099, USA
  • 17University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA
  • 18Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA
  • 19University of Edinburgh, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom
  • 20University at Albany (SUNY), Department of Physics, Albany, New York 12222-0100, USA
  • 21Yale University, Department of Physics, 217 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
  • 22Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), University of Coimbra, P-3004 516 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 23University of South Dakota, Department of Physics, 414E Clark Street, Vermillion, South Dakota 57069, USA
  • 24South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA), Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota 57754-1700, USA
  • 25Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA
  • 26Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Physics, Egham, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
  • 27University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA
  • 28University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester, New York 14627-0171, USA
  • 29Northwestern University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112, USA
  • 30Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, Illinois 60510-5011, USA
  • 31University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
  • 32University of Bristol, H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom
  • 33The University of Sydney, School of Physics, Physics Road, Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
  • 34Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA
  • 35University of Massachusetts, Department of Physics, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-9337, USA
  • 36University of Alabama, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 34587-0324, USA
  • 37University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, Austin, Texas 78712-1192, USA
  • 38IBS Center for Underground Physics (CUP), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea
  • 39University of Sheffield, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom
  • 40Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, V-00120, Vatican City State
  • 41Black Hills State University, School of Natural Sciences, Spearfish, South Dakota 57799-0002, USA
  • 42Texas A&M University, Department of Physics, College Station, Texas 77843, USA
  • 43California State University Stanislaus, Department of Physics, 1 University Circle, Turlock, California 95382, USA
  • 44Purdue University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA

  • *Contact author: xu12@llnl.gov
  • †Contact author: rlinehan@slac.stanford.edu, linehan3@fnal.gov
  • ‡Present address: The University of Melbourne, School of Physics, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 072007 – Published 23 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7tk3-33s9

Abstract

The dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) is a powerful technology to detect rare interactions such as scatters of dark matter particles on nuclei. In particular, the built-in gain of ionization signals in a dual-phase TPC makes it sensitive to events in the few-electron regime, as expected from low-mass dark matter interactions. The pursuit of this low-energy sensitivity through ionization-only signal detection has so far been hindered by excessive electron backgrounds observed across experiments. Much of this background is attributed to the plate-out of Rn222 decay chain isotopes on the high-voltage electrode grid surfaces that span the full cross section of the TPC. This work presents a first-principles model constructed for this background, the predictions of which are consistent with data from the LZ and LUX experiments. We then discuss strategies to mitigate this background in future dual-phase TPCs and the possibility of applying this grid background model to ionization-only dark matter searches.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 072007– Published 23 October, 2026
  • Received 22 April 2026
  • Accepted 28 September 2026
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