85Kr and 39Ar background in GENIUS

Abstract

GENIUS is a proposal for a large scale detector of rare events like double beta decay, cold dark matter and low-energy solar neutrinos in real time. The idea of GENIUS is to operate a large amount of ``naked'' Ge detectors in liquid nitrogen, with the aim of reducing the background down to a level of 10^(-3) counts/kg keV y. In this work we investigate the contribution to the background of GENIUS coming from argon (39Ar) and krypton (85Kr) contamination in the liquid nitrogen.

Comments: In press, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment (2003)