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ORCID

N/A

Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Document Type

thesis

Degree Program

Physics

Degree Type

Master of Science (M.S.)

Year Degree Awarded

2015

Month Degree Awarded

September

Abstract

Liquid argon is an attractive target for dark matter searches due to its low cost and exemplary event discrimination. However, atmospherically derived argon contains the beta-emitter 39Ar which confounds the growth of dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) style detectors to the ton-scale. The DarkSide Collaboration seeks to bypass this limitation by extracting argon from deep underground, from a location known to contain significantly less 39Ar than atmospherically derived argon. This thesis will summarize the e orts taken to produce the first batch of underground argon, focusing on the first operation of the underground argon in a dual-phase TPC to validate the purity of the product, performed at Fermilab using the SCENE cryostat.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/7505314

First Advisor

Andrea Pocar

Second Advisor

David Kawall

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