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Quartz fluorescence backgrounds in xenon particle detectors

P. Sorensen1,* and R. Gibbons1,2

  • *Contact author: pfsorensen@lbl.gov
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 052004 – Published 11 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lsmf-pm5g

Abstract

It has been known for almost a decade that delayed photon noise with a power law time profile follows scintillation pulses in liquid xenon particle detectors. The origin of the noise has remained unknown, and in the past two years, has become an overwhelming background for low-threshold dark matter searches aimed at O(10)  GeV dark matter particle masses, as well as measurements of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering of B8 solar neutrinos. We have performed a comprehensive series of tests in a small liquid xenon cell at LBL, from which we conclude that the dominant component of this delayed photon noise is due to UV-induced fluorescence of quartz photosensor windows.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 052004– Published 11 September, 2025
  • Received 8 May 2025
  • Accepted 22 August 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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