The NEWS-G detector at SNOLAB

The New Experiments With Spheres-Gas (NEWS-G) collaboration intends to achieve $\mathrm{sub-GeV/c^{2}}$ Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) detection using Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs). SPCs are gaseous detectors relying on ionization with a single ionization electron energy threshold. The latest generation of SPC for direct dark matter searches has been installed at SNOLAB in Canada in 2021. This article details the different processes involved in the fabrication of the NEWS-G experiment. Also outlined in this paper are the mitigation strategies, measurements of radioactivity of the different components, and estimations of induced background event rates that were used to quantify and address detector backgrounds

The NEWS-G detector at SNOLAB

The New Experiments With Spheres-Gas (NEWS-G) collaboration intends to achieve $\mathrm{sub-GeV/c^{2}}$ Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) detection using Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs). SPCs are gaseous detectors relying on ionization with a single ionization electron energy threshold. The latest generation of SPC for direct dark matter searches has been installed at SNOLAB in Canada in 2021. This article details the different processes involved in the fabrication of the NEWS-G experiment. Also outlined in this paper are the mitigation strategies, measurements of radioactivity of the different components, and estimations of induced background event rates that were used to quantify and address detector backgrounds

The NEWS-G detector at SNOLAB

The New Experiments With Spheres-Gas (NEWS-G) collaboration intends to achieve $\mathrm{sub-GeV/c^{2}}$ Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) detection using Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs). SPCs are gaseous detectors relying on ionization with a single ionization electron energy threshold. The latest generation of SPC for direct dark matter searches has been installed at SNOLAB in Canada in 2021. This article details the different processes involved in the fabrication of the NEWS-G experiment. Also outlined in this paper are the mitigation strategies, measurements of radioactivity of the different components, and estimations of induced background event rates that were used to quantify and address detector backgrounds

The NEWS-G detector at SNOLAB

The New Experiments With Spheres-Gas (NEWS-G) collaboration intends to achieve $\mathrm{sub-GeV/c^{2}}$ Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) detection using Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs). SPCs are gaseous detectors relying on ionization with a single ionization electron energy threshold. The latest generation of SPC for direct dark matter searches has been installed at SNOLAB in Canada in 2021. This article details the different processes involved in the fabrication of the NEWS-G experiment. Also outlined in this paper are the mitigation strategies, measurements of radioactivity of the different components, and estimations of induced background event rates that were used to quantify and address detector backgrounds.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, to be publishe

The NEWS-G detector at SNOLAB

The New Experiments With Spheres-Gas (NEWS-G) collaboration intends to achieve $\mathrm{sub-GeV/c^{2}}$ Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) detection using Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs). SPCs are gaseous detectors relying on ionization with a single ionization electron energy threshold. The latest generation of SPC for direct dark matter searches has been installed at SNOLAB in Canada in 2021. This article details the different processes involved in the fabrication of the NEWS-G experiment. Also outlined in this paper are the mitigation strategies, measurements of radioactivity of the different components, and estimations of induced background event rates that were used to quantify and address detector backgrounds

Quenching factor measurements of neon nuclei in neon gas

International audienceThe NEWS-G collaboration uses spherical proportional counters (SPCs) to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). In this paper, we report the first measurements of the nuclear quenching factor in neon gas at 2 bar using an SPC deployed in a neutron beam at the TUNL facility. The energy-dependence of the nuclear quenching factor is modeled using a simple power law: αEnrβ; we determine its parameters by simultaneously fitting the data collected with the detector over a range of energies. We measured the following parameters in Ne:CH4 at 2 bar: α=0.2801±0.0050 (fit) ±0.0045 (sys) and β=0.0867±0.020 (fit) ±0.006 (sys). Our measurements do not agree with expected values from SRIM or Lindhard theory. We demonstrated the feasibility of performing quenching factor measurements at sub-keV energies in gases using SPCs and a neutron beam

The application of radiochronometry during the 4th collaborative materials exercise of the nuclear forensics international technical working group (ITWG)

In a recent international exercise, 10 international nuclear forensics laboratories successfully performed radiochronometry on three low enriched uranium oxide samples, providing 12 analytical results using three different parent-daughter pairs serving as independent chronometers. The vast majority of the results were consistent with one another and consistent with the known processing history of the materials. In general, for these particular samples, mass spectrometry gave more accurate and more precise analytical results than decay counting measurements. In addition, the concordance of the 235U–231Pa and 234U–230Th chronometers confirmed the validity of the age dating assumptions, increasing confidence in the resulting conclusions.JRC.G.II.6-Nuclear Safeguards and Forensic