* Astronomy

Title: GIOVE - A New Detector Setup for High Sensitivity Germanium Spectroscopy At Shallow Depth
Author: Gerd Heusser, Marc Weber, Janina Hakenmüller, Matthias Laubenstein, Manfred Lindner, Werner Maneschg, Hardy Simgen, Dominik Stolzenburg, Herbert Strecker

We report on the development and construction of the high-purity germanium spectrometer setup GIOVE (Germanium Inner Outer Veto), recently built and now operated at the shallow underground laboratory of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg. Particular attention was paid to the design of a novel passive and active shield, aiming at efficient rejection of environmental and muon induced radiation backgrounds. The achieved sensitivity level of <100 µBq/kg for primordial radionuclides from U and Th in typical \gamma ray sample screening measurements is unique among instruments located at comparably shallow depths and can compete with instruments at far deeper underground sites.

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