Speaker
Description
The CRESST experiment searches for dark matter induced nuclear recoils inside $\rm CaWO_4$ based cryogenic calorimeters at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy. To reliably identify a potential signal, a precise understanding of its background budget is crucial.
A potentially important background category are “cosmogenics”: radionuclides produced via interactions with cosmic rays, mainly during the crystal production at surface facilities. Albeit $\rm CaWO_4$ is a well-established calorimetric material, no systematic study of its susceptibility for cosmic activation existed so far.
In this contribution, we will first report the exposure profile of CRESST’s in-house grown $\rm CaWO_4$ crystals to cosmic rays. Then we will identify the most prominent cosmogenics via ACTIVIA calculations. Afterwards we discuss the expected background spectrum based on Geant4 simulations and compare it to measurements. Finally, we give an outlook on ongoing cross-checks with alternative activation codes.
