210Po background in rare event experiments on dark matter and solar neutrinos.

Abstract

The radon isotope 222Rn is a radioactive gas that is produced in the decay chain of naturally occurring 238U. Its 22-year daughter 210Pb decays to the radioactive isotopes 210Bi and 210Po. The 210Pb and its daughters are ubiquitous in ground water and air and can pose serious background problems for fundamental rare event experiments. In particular, searches for dark matter WIMPs, neutrinoless double beta de- cay, and solar neutrino experiments all face serious problems from these backgrounds. In this thesis, fractional distillation to remove 210Po from water is discussed and shown to have promising results.