CALIS—A CALibration Insertion System for the DarkSide-50 dark matter search experiment

P Agnes,K Biery,M Lissia,A Monte,G Bonfini,J Xu,M De Vincenzi,A Devoto,B Schlitzer,J Brodsky,M De Deo,P Humble,M Gromov,G Fiorillo,P Trinchese,A Empl,B Rossi,L Grandi,G Korga,H Wang,F Di Eusanio,A Derbin,W Sands,A Chepurnov,A Zec,E Segreto,A Romani,M Pallavicini,G Ranucci,D Sablone,C Dionisi,M Cadeddu,A Brigatti,R Tartaglia,S Westerdale,S Davini,S Odrowski,M Verducci,C Cicalò,A Sotnikov,C Jollet,W Bonivento,Y Ma,B Vogelaar,J Maricic,Q Riffard,A Candela,A Meregaglia,K Pelczar,S De Cecco,L Pagani,L Marini,A Pocar,X Li,A Vishneva,B Bottino,C Galbiati,K Randle,J Wilhelmi,J Napolitano,F Budano,P Lombardi,A Mandarano,V Bocci,N Rossi,B Loer,M Caravati,M Cariello,C Giganti,B Reinhold,Y Wang,K Herner,D Montanari,O Smirnov,J Tatarowicz,A Fan,M Wada,C Savarese,Y Guardincerri,N Canci,S Catalanotti,M Carlini,N Pelliccia,F Gabriele,K Fomenko,M Razeti,An Ianni,G Testera,T Alexander,M Bossa,B Baldin,F Ortica,E Shields,I James,F Calaprice,C Zhu,S Giagu,A Tonazzo,G Di Pietro,A Navrer Agasson,A Razeto,P Musico,G Koh,E Edkins,L Cadonati,G Covone,R Saldanha,S Pordes,M Rescigno,M Orsini,S Bussino,P Cavalcante,F Granato,C Stanford,S Parmeggiano,Y Suvorov,Xiang Xiao ,D Korablëv ,B J Mount ,Mengyun Guan ,I Machulin ,P D Meyers ,R Milinčić ,B R Hackett ,A G Cocco ,Paolo Saggese ,Changgen Yang ,T Johnson ,Giuseppe Longo ,Susan Walker ,C J Martoff ,Stefano Maria Mari ,S D Rountree ,K J Keeter ,X Xiang ,A S Kubankin ,Weili Zhong ,C L Kendziora ,A Alton ,H O Back ,Mariano Cadoni ,J Miller ,V Muratova ,Donald J Hughes ,M Skorokhvatov ,E Unzhakov ,D M Asner ,A A Machado ,G Förster ,E Hungerford ,D A Pugachev ,A Renshaw ,M D׳Incecco ,M Wójcik ,G K Giovanetti ,I F M Albuquerque ,Hao Qian ,A Ianni ,D Semenov ,A Goretti ,Prabhjot Singh ,D D’angelo ,A Watson ,D Franco,E Pantic,G Zuzel

doi:10.1088/1748-0221/12/12/t12004

Abstract

This paper describes the design, fabrication, commissioning and use of a CALibration source Insertion System (CALIS) in the DarkSide-50 direct dark matter search experiment. CALIS deploys radioactive sources into the liquid scintillator veto to characterize the detector response and detection efficiency of the DarkSide-50 Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber, and the surrounding 30 t organic liquid scintillator neutron veto. It was commissioned in September 2014 and has been used successfully in several gamma and neutron source campaigns since then. A description of the hardware and an excerpt of calibration analysis results are given below.

Highlights

- The electronics, trigger and data acquisition system for the liquid argon time projection chamber of the DarkSide-50 search for dark matter P
: This paper describes the design, fabrication, commissioning and use of a CALibration source Insertion System (CALIS) in the DarkSide-50 direct dark matter search experiment
Calibration campaigns have been performed in the presence of AAr and UAr

Summary

Design requirements & hardware implementation

Via CALIS, radioactive gamma and neutron sources can be deployed inside the LSV to study and calibrate the TPC and the LSV detector response and neutron detection efficiency. Vacuum evacuation (flushing) and nitrogen purging system One of this system’s most important safety features is making sure that TMB and PC residue on the deployment device are extracted from CALIS and vented prior to opening the view port to access the source arm. This is important for safe working conditions inside CRH as well as for the scintillator and its radiopurity. At the end of a calibration campaign, after the deployment device has returned to its home position inside the enclosure and the gate valve has been closed, scintillator vapor, and in particular TMB, has to be removed prior to opening the view port. Far during calibration campaigns it has not been necessary to use the manual retraction system nor has the high limit switch been activated

Degrees of freedom

Laser calibration

Gamma sources

Calibration campaigns timeline and stability

Calibration results

Source position