Speaker
Description
Radon remains one of the most limiting backgrounds in direct detection dark matter searches. Major collaborations have made substantial progress in radon detection and mitigation. However, much of the foundational data underpinning radon removal efficiency, material emanation rates, diffusion coefficients, and suppression performance remains experiment-specific. Measurements are often performed under laboratory-dependent conditions, making results difficult to compare directly and systematic uncertainties difficult to propagate.
We propose the formation of an International Radon Network to connect dark matter collaborations and radon-related projects. Building upon decades of foundational work from the University of Sheffield and the Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille (CPPM), including activities such as the ANR funded IRENE (Innovative mateRials for Extreme radoN capture) project, the network will deliver two core outcomes. First, it will standardise experimental methodologies through common performance metrics and coordinated inter laboratory round robin campaigns. Second, it will establish a shared, structured database of existing and planned radon adsorption, diffusion, emanation, and suppression studies, with standard reporting of experimental conditions. This will enable meaningful cross comparison, inform design decisions, and support sourcing of radon removal media.
The recently established DREAMR (Detecting Radon Emanation and Mitigating Radon) radon facility at the Australian National University provides a timely opportunity to pilot cross laboratory measurements, develop shared reference resources, and host the network database hub. By bringing laboratories and collaborations together such as CPPM's Radon platform, this initiative aims to reduce duplicated effort, strengthen radon control strategies for next generation detectors, and accelerate progress towards the ultimate sensitivity goals of dark matter experiments.
| Main Contribution topic | Instrumentation for Dark Matter searches |
|---|---|
| Secondary contribution topic | Direct detection |