XENONnT: Freiburg parts on cover page of Physik Journal
The Freiurg astroparticle physics group was deeply involved in the design, construction and assembly of the XENONnT low-background time projection chamber (TPC), the "active heart" of the dark matter detector. XENONnT is currently taking data at LNGS with its 5.9 t active liquid xenon target.
Many components of the TPC, all made from carefully selected materials with a very low intrinsic radioactivity, were built in mechanical workshop of Freiburg's Institute of Physics or by external companies supervised by Freiburg physicists. Some of these pieces are now featured on the cover page of the Physik Journal, the journal of the German Physical Society (DPG). The image shows the structure one of the two arrays which supports 248 high-sensitive photomultipliers to detect light signals as low as 2-3 photons. It is made from low-background copper and PTFE (Teflon), which is highly reflective for xenon scintillation light.
The journal contains two articles on science beyond dark matter with XENONnT, as well as how the ultra-pure liquid xenon target is produced.
- Link to Physik Journal Homepage. The articles (in German) are only accessible to DPG members.
