Liquid argon light collection and veto modeling in GERDA Phase II

The ability to detect liquid argon scintillation light from within a densely packed high-purity germanium detector array allowed the Gerda experiment to reach an exceptionally low background rate in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay of76 Ge. Proper modeling of the light propagation throughout the experimental setup, from any origin in the liquid argon volume to its eventual detection by the novel light read-out system, provides insight into the rejection capability and is a necessary ingredient to obtain robust background predictions. In this paper, we present a model of the Gerda liquid argon veto, as obtained by Monte Carlo simulations and constrained by calibration data, and highlight its application for background decomposition.

Pulse shape analysis in Gerda Phase II

The GERmanium Detector Array (Gerda) collaboration searched for neutrinoless double- β decay in 76 Ge using isotopically enriched high purity germanium detectors at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN. After Phase I (2011-2013), the experiment benefited from several upgrades, including an additional active veto based on LAr instrumentation and a significant increase of mass by point-contact germanium detectors that improved the half-life sensitivity of Phase II (2015-2019) by an order of magnitude. At the core of the background mitigation strategy, the analysis of the time profile of individual pulses provides a powerful topological discrimination of signal-like and background-like events. Data from regular 228 Th calibrations and physics data were both considered in the evaluation of the pulse shape discrimination performance. In this work, we describe the various methods applied to the data collected in Gerda Phase II corresponding to an exposure of 103.7 kg year. These methods suppress the background by a factor of about 5 in the region of interest around Q β β = 2039  keV, while preserving ( 81 ± 3 ) % of the signal. In addition, an exhaustive list of parameters is provided which were used in the final data analysis.

The influence of lipid peroxidation products (malondialdehyde, 4-hydroxynonenal) on xanthine oxidoreductase prepared from rat liver

Depending on metabolic conditions, xanthine oxidoreductase acts as either a dehydrogenase (XDH) or an oxidase (XOD). The metabolism of hypoxanthine and xanthine by the oxidase is associated with the production of reactive oxygen radicals. Reaction of reactive oxygen radicals with polyunsaturated fatty acids (lipid peroxidation) leads to the formation of malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), known to modify proteins by reaction with NH2- and SH-groups. Therefore, these aldehydes could influence both the activity of xanthine oxidoreductase and the XOD/XDH ratio. We found that incubation of xanthine oxidoreductase with MDA leads to an initial increase in XDH activity and to a continuous decrease in XOD activity, whereby the total activity decreases. This was in contrast to the effects of HNE which did not alter the XDH activity; XOD was however activated. This demonstrates that the lipid peroxidation products MDA and HNE are able to modify xanthine oxidoreductase similarly to a feed-back mechanism.