Campuses:
The Assay and Acquisition of Radiopure Materials (AARM) is a collaboration including representatives from all major dark matter and double beta decay experiments, as well as representatives from the geology and microbiology communities. We are united around the need for low-background siting and materials, in particular those concerned with dark matter, neutrinoless double beta decay, low-energy neutrino detection and production, and elements of biology and geology. This collaboration received a three-year S4 grant which combined three important functions: (1) Background characterization of the Homestake Mine, (2) Design of a low background counting facility (FAARM) to be located in a DUSEL lab module, and (3) Tools for underground physics, including a materials screening database, a dedicated Geant4 simulation, and the workshops necessary to build a community-wide effort around the quantification of backgrounds for underground science.
The effort in background characterization has been largely completed and further work specific to Homestake will continue under the guidance of the SURF management ?? and the CUBED initiative. The site-specific FAARM engineering design was also completed; an overview of the facility was presented at the Low Radiation Techniques workshop at SNOLAB [1]. A new proposal for the redesign of the FAARM concept for a dedicated excavation at SURF will be submitted independently. The work being proposed here is for a continuation of the very successful integrative tools and workshops centered on simulation and underground physics.