• Accepted Paper

Flow-dependent tagging of 214Pb decays in the LZ dark matter detector

J. Aalbers et al.

Phys. Rev. D - Accepted 18 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2fnv-v64s

Abstract

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is searching for dark matter interactions in a liquid xenon time projection chamber (LXe-TPC). This article demonstrates how control of the flow state in the LXe-TPC enables the identification of pairs of sequential alpha-decays, which are used to map fluid flow and ion drift in the liquid target. The resulting transport model is used to tag 214Pb~ beta-decays, a leading background to dark matter signals in LZ. Temporally evolving volume selections, at a cost of 9.0% of exposure, target the decay of each 214Pb~ atom up to 81 minutes after production, resulting in (63±6(stat)±7(sys))% identification of 214Pb~decays to ground state. We also demonstrate how flow-based tagging techniques enable a novel calibration side band that is concurrent with science data. Finally we report updated estimates of radon-chain charge branching fractions in liquid xenon, finding branching to 218Po+ at 0.49±0.01, 214Pb+ at 0.48±0.12, and 214Bi+ at 0.74±0.05, with a mean charged ion lifetime in the LZ TPC of 49±4 min.

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