A material assay database for the low-background physics community

The low-background physics community has been performing assays of material radiopurity for decades and many thousands of such measurements exist. Some are available in publications and others in databases, but most are still communicated informally. No standard data format exists for encoding material assays and there is no central location to store them. The aim of the work reported here is to address this long-standing problem, through the creation of a concise and flexible material assay data format and powerful database software to use it. A public installation of this software may serve as a long-term repository for the community’s material assay data. It is available at http://www.radiopurity.org.