Abstract: The energy distribution of the neutron background was measured for the first time at Hall A of the Canfranc Underground Laboratory. For this purpose we used a novel approach based on the combination of the information obtained with six large high-pressure He-3 proportional counters embedded in individual polyethylene blocks of different size. In this way not only the integral value but also the flux distribution as a function of neutron energy was determined in the range from 1 eV to 10 MeV. This information is of importance because different underground experiments show different neutron background energy dependence. The high sensitivity of the setup allowed to measure a neutron flux level which is about four orders of magnitude smaller that the neutron background at sea level. The integral value obtained is Phi(Hall A) = (3.44 +/- 0.35) x 10(-6) cm(-2) s(-1).

Abstract: The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment will search for dark matter particle interactions with a detector containing a total of 10 tonnes of liquid xenon within a double -vessel cryostat. The large mass and proximity of the cryostat to the active detector volume demand the use of material with extremely low intrinsic radioactivity. We report on the radioassay campaign conducted to identify suitable metals, the determination of factors limiting radiopure production, and the selection of titanium for construction of the LZ cryostat and other detector components. This titanium has been measured with activities of U-238(e) < 1.6 mBq/kg, U-238(I) < 0.09 mBq/kg, Th-232(e) = 0.28 +/- 0.03 mBq/kg, Th-232(I) = 0.25 +/- 0.02 mBq/kg, K-40 <0.54 mBq/kg, and (60) Co <0.02 mBq/kg (68% CL). Such low intrinsic activities, which are some of the lowest ever reported for titanium, enable its use for future dark matter and other rare event searches. Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to assess the expected background contribution from the LZ cryostat with this radioactivity. In 1,000 days of WIMP search exposure of a 5.6-tonne fiducial mass, the cryostat will contribute only a mean background of 0.160 +/- 0.001(stat) +/- 0.030(sys) counts.

Abstract: Cosmological simulations play a pivotal role in understanding the properties of the dark matter (DM) distribution in both galactic and galaxy -cluster environments. The characterization of DM structures is crucial for informing indirect DM searches, aiming at the detection of the annihilation (or decay) products of DM particles. A fundamental quantity in these analyses is the astrophysical J -factor. In the DM phenomenology community, J -factors are typically computed through the semi -analytical modelling of the DM mass distribution, which is affected by large uncertainties. With the scope of addressing and possibly reducing these uncertainties, we present NAJADS, a self-contained framework to derive the DM J -factor directly from the raw simulations data. We show how this framework can be used to compute all -sky maps of the J -factor, automatically accounting for the complex 3D structure of the simulated halos and for the boosting of the signal due to the density fluctuations along the line of sight. After validating our code, we present a proof -of -concept application of NAJADS to a realistic halo from the IllustrisTNG suite, and exploit it to make a thorough comparison between our numerical approach and traditional semi -analytical methods. JCAP02(2024)001