Low Background Counting Studies of the Cosmogenic Activation of Titanium — 66p — Archer Sagaskie¹, Zachariah Thomas², Haylee Busch³, Brianna Mount⁴

^1. Grand Valley State University, ^2. University of Michigan – Dearborn, ^3. Kansas Wesleyan University, ^4. Black Hills State University

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is the leading dark matter detector in the world and located 4850 ft below the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Its aim is to prove that the cosmologically observed dark matter is comprised of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The 4850 ft of rock overburden shields LZ from most cosmic rays, which would cause an overwhelming background in the search for WIMPs. Additionally, materials used in the construction of LZ must only emit ultra-low levels of radiation in order to maintain a low background environment for the detection of the rare WIMP signal. At the Black Hills Underground Campus (BHUC), there are six High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors that count gamma rays emitted from materials placed in the detector shield. Titanium was used to build the LZ cryostat. Samples of this Titanium were brought above ground and have remained there for the last 10 years. The goal of this experiment is to measure the activation of isotopes of scandium in titanium. This was accomplished by screening samples of titanium with the HPGe detectors at the BHUC.

Black Hills State University
Dr. Brianna Mount