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Author: Brian Gregory Lenardo Publisher: ISBN: 9780438289567 Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
This dissertation focuses on the characterization of xenon as a detection medium for low energy particle physics. In particular, there are two signals that we are interested in exploring: the interactions of WIMP dark matter inside an earth-bound detector, and the coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos off of nuclei. Both are predicted to produce low energy (10−1--102 keV) nuclear recoils, which can be measured in a low-threshold detector. One well-established technique for measuring these signals is the dual-phase xenon emission detector, which measures primary scintillation light and electroluminescence from ionized electrons to reconstruct information about each interaction inside the target volume. To understand the data produced in an experiment, one must understand how the scintillation and ionization signals relate to the incident particle type and energy deposited. Calibrating the response of the detector medium is of crucial importance for both interpreting existing data and calculating the physics reach of current or future experiments. The ultimate goal of this dissertation is to provide a set of robust models of xenon ionization and scintillation emission which can can be used to calculate signals and simulate the response of liquid xenon detectors in experiments searching for low energy nuclear recoil signatures. In the work below, I begin with a detailed description of the physics of interest. Chapter 2 introduces the dual-phase xenon TPC and discuss its benefits for these types of experiments. In Chapter 3, we draw upon previous literature to develop a model of xenon scintillation and ionization yields. This model is fitted simultaneously to a compilation of available data to allow it to incorporate differences in operating conditions, such as applied electric field, across different experiments. Chapter 4 extends this modeling effort to work within the LUX collaboration, which operated a 300 kg liquid xenon TPC with world-leading sensitivity to dark matter WIMP interactions. LUX performed the lowest-energy nuclear recoil calibration measurements to date, allowing us to extend our model to lower energies and establishing the sensitivity of LUX to a broader range of WIMP models. Chapter 5 delves in greater detail into the time structure of scintillation in liquid xenon. We provide new data on scintillation pulse shapes for low energy nuclear recoils, and use the differences between electron- and nuclear-recoil pulse shapes to establish a new background discriminant for use in LUX data analysis. Finally, in Chapter 6 we describe an ongoing project at LLNL to provide new data of ionization yields at lower energies than the LUX measurements. These experiments will have direct implications on the sensitivity of liquid xenon detectors in general to both low-mass WIMPs and nuclear reactor neutrino scattering. Here we describe the development of the xenon detector system and the preliminary characterization and calibration work that was performed in preparation for the main experiments.
Author: Brian Gregory Lenardo Publisher: ISBN: 9780438289567 Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
This dissertation focuses on the characterization of xenon as a detection medium for low energy particle physics. In particular, there are two signals that we are interested in exploring: the interactions of WIMP dark matter inside an earth-bound detector, and the coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos off of nuclei. Both are predicted to produce low energy (10−1--102 keV) nuclear recoils, which can be measured in a low-threshold detector. One well-established technique for measuring these signals is the dual-phase xenon emission detector, which measures primary scintillation light and electroluminescence from ionized electrons to reconstruct information about each interaction inside the target volume. To understand the data produced in an experiment, one must understand how the scintillation and ionization signals relate to the incident particle type and energy deposited. Calibrating the response of the detector medium is of crucial importance for both interpreting existing data and calculating the physics reach of current or future experiments. The ultimate goal of this dissertation is to provide a set of robust models of xenon ionization and scintillation emission which can can be used to calculate signals and simulate the response of liquid xenon detectors in experiments searching for low energy nuclear recoil signatures. In the work below, I begin with a detailed description of the physics of interest. Chapter 2 introduces the dual-phase xenon TPC and discuss its benefits for these types of experiments. In Chapter 3, we draw upon previous literature to develop a model of xenon scintillation and ionization yields. This model is fitted simultaneously to a compilation of available data to allow it to incorporate differences in operating conditions, such as applied electric field, across different experiments. Chapter 4 extends this modeling effort to work within the LUX collaboration, which operated a 300 kg liquid xenon TPC with world-leading sensitivity to dark matter WIMP interactions. LUX performed the lowest-energy nuclear recoil calibration measurements to date, allowing us to extend our model to lower energies and establishing the sensitivity of LUX to a broader range of WIMP models. Chapter 5 delves in greater detail into the time structure of scintillation in liquid xenon. We provide new data on scintillation pulse shapes for low energy nuclear recoils, and use the differences between electron- and nuclear-recoil pulse shapes to establish a new background discriminant for use in LUX data analysis. Finally, in Chapter 6 we describe an ongoing project at LLNL to provide new data of ionization yields at lower energies than the LUX measurements. These experiments will have direct implications on the sensitivity of liquid xenon detectors in general to both low-mass WIMPs and nuclear reactor neutrino scattering. Here we describe the development of the xenon detector system and the preliminary characterization and calibration work that was performed in preparation for the main experiments.
Author: Matthew Anthony Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
An abundance of cosmological evidence suggests that cold dark matter exists and makes up 83% of the matter in the universe. At the same time, this dark matter has eluded direct detection and its identity remains a mystery. Many large international collaborations are actively searching for dark matter through its potential annihilation in high-density regions of the universe, its creation in particle accelerators, and its interaction with Standard Model particles in low-background detectors. One of the most promising dark matter candidates is the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) which falls naturally out of extensions of the Standard Model. A variety of detectors have been employed in the search for WIMPs, which are expected to scatter with atomic nuclei, yet none have been more successful than dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chambers (TPCs). The first ton-scale liquid xenon TPC, XENON1T, began operating in 2016 and with only 34.2 days of data has set the most strict limits on the WIMP-nucleon interaction cross sections for WIMP masses above 10 GeV/c^2, with a minimum of 7.7 × 10−47 cm^2 for 35 GeV/c^2 WIMPs.
Author: Dmitry Yu Akimov Publisher: World Scientific ISBN: 9811231109 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 353
Book Description
One of the rapidly developing areas of modern experimental nuclear physics is non-accelerator experiments using low-background detectors. Such experiments, as a rule, are aimed at solving problems that are of fundamental importance for understanding the structure of the Universe, checking the Standard Model of elementary particles, and looking for new physics behind the observable world. The most interesting tasks include the search for dark matter in the form of new weakly interacting particles, the search for neutrinoless double beta decay, the determination of the magnetic moment of the neutrino, the study of neutrino oscillation and new types of interaction of elementary particles, such as coherent neutrino scattering off heavy nuclei.All these processes, occurring with extremely low cross sections, require the development of efficient large-mass detectors capable of detecting small energy releases down to individual ionization electrons. An effective method to do this is the emission method of detecting ionizing particles in two-phase media, which has been proposed at Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI) 50 years ago. The origin of this technique can be traced to the research headed by Prof. Boris A Dolgoshein, whose study focus on the properties of condensed noble gases as a means to develop a tracking streamer chamber with a high-density working medium.This monograph, devoted exclusively to two-phase emission detectors, considers the technology's basic features while taking into account new developments introduced into experimental practice in the last ten years since the publication of its predecessor, Emission Detectors (Bolozdynya, 2010).
Author: Yixiong Meng Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 217
Book Description
Cosmological and Astrophysical observations provide compelling evidences for the existence of dark matter in the universe. One class of dark matter candidates, the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), has been predicted in many particle physics theories. Direct detection experiments using dual- phase liquid noble element detectors report the best sensitivities to the detection of the dark matter particles. The next generation direct detection experiments using the same technology, are actively been built and expected to give a factor of 100 improvement on the current best sensitivity. This thesis discusses the measurement of nuclear recoils in a dual-phase liquid argon detector using a bunched neutron beam generated by linear accelerator facility at accelerator laboratory in Notre Dame University. Nuclear recoils of en- ergy ranging from 10.8 keVnr to 49.9 keVnr are measured under different drift field configurations. An electric field quenching on nuclear recoils in liquid argon is dis- covered and quantified for the first time. This quenching effect is also found to be drift field and recoil energy dependent. By varying the drift field amplitude from 100 V/cm to 1000 V/cm for each nuclear recoil energy, the quenching effect are measured as a function of nuclear recoil energy and drift field amplitude. Results from this measurement is used in the direct dark matter detection experiment to calculate the final sensitivity of direct dark matter search. A separate work on the optimization of detector design for the XENON1T detector is also discussed in detail. Finite element simulation tool is used to design and optimize the electric field in XENON1T time projection chamber. As part of the design of XENON1T detector, electron transparency across metal grids of different geometrical configurations are also studied.
Author: Vitaly Kudryavtsev Publisher: World Scientific ISBN: 9814486981 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 684
Book Description
This book contains written versions of the presentations made at the 4th International Workshop on the Identification of Dark Matter (IDM 2002), held in York, UK, in September 2002. The objective of this workshop series is to assess the status of work attempting to identify what constitutes dark matter — in particular, to consider the techniques being used, how successful they are, and what new techniques are likely to improve prospects for identifying likely dark matter candidates in the future. At IDM 2002 special emphasis was placed on recent results obtained in searches for baryonic and non-baryonic dark matter. The proceedings include reviews of major topics on dark matter, as well as short contributed talks.
Author: Guillaume Plante Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
This thesis describes the research conducted in the context of the XENON100 dark matter search experiment. I describe the initial simulation results and ideas that influenced the design of the XENON100 detector, the construction and assembly steps that lead into its concrete realization, the detector and its subsystems, a subset of the calibration results of the detector, and finally dark matter exclusion limits. I also describe in detail the new improved measurement of the important quantity for the interpretation of results from LXe dark matter searches, the scintillation efficiency of low-energy nuclear recoils in LXe.
Author: Jacob Edward Cutter Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
One of the most important fundamental problems in physics today is to understand the nature of dark matter. The landscape of explanations for observed dark matter phenomena is vast and still expanding, and an impressive number of experiments have been built to probe the dark sector of the universe. A prominent class of detectors is aimed at discovering (or excluding) a particular kind of dark matter: the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP). Searching for this popular dark matter candidate requires an ultra-sensitive, low-background target; xenon detectors serve as such a target for dark matter interactions. The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) detector is a dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber (TPC) which was operated underground at the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota from 2013 to 2016, and was able to achieve the world's leading WIMP exclusion limit. However, successful reconstruction of WIMP-nucleus scatters in such detectors requires thorough understanding of the detection medium, which is made difficult by various confounding effects near the detector walls. Field-fringing is a major component of confusion in the periphery, and the large electric field non-uniformities in Run 4 of LUX provided a significant challenge in the dark matter analysis. Here is presented an algorithm to bijectively map between reconstructed event positions and true spatial coordinates, which serves as an important tool for studying field effects and fiducialization in LUX. Additionally, a successful dark matter search must model interfering background events in the WIMP search region which can't be directly vetoed. One class of unavoidable backgrounds comes from nuclear decay chain daughters in detector materials themselves, which may produce WIMP-like signals (an effect which is amplified due to various detector effects). The Davis Xenon (DAX) test bed system and a dual-phase TPC have been assembled and operated at UC Davis to characterize these common "wall backgrounds", as well as perform other R&D studies for the next-generation LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. The DAX TPC specifically measures the xenon response to heavy nuclei produced by custom [alpha] decay sources created using novel chemical deposition procedures. In this thesis, results will be presented for the light and charge yields of immersed localized sources of 206Pb ions in liquid xenon, as well as a method for tagging such recoil events in situ by using PIN diodes as charged particle detectors to capture the correlated [alpha] particles. We also compare our isolated 206Pb events with previous WIMP search data from LUX, and discuss the significance of 206Pb as a WIMP background. Such information is most useful to future experiments if it can improve existing background models and simulations. The Noble Element Simulation Technique (NEST) is the ultimate software package for calculating expected signal yields in xenon detectors, but is an empirical framework that relies on experimental data to inform the models. We discuss the development of current NEST v2 models, specifically the heavy nuclear recoil models, as well as our current understanding of the xenon microphysics. We also show NEST predictions for mono-energetic 206Pb recoils, and discuss how our most recent DAX 206Pb measurements may inform NEST models in future work.
Author: Aaron Gösta Manalaysay Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
The relative scintillation efficiency for nuclear recoils of 5 keV is found to be 0.14, staying constant around this value up to 10 keV. For higher energy recoils we measure a value of 0.21, consistent with previously reported data. In light of this new measurement, the XENON10 experiment's upper limits on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section, which were calculated assuming a constant 0.19 relative scintillation efficiency, change from 8.8 \U+00d7\ 10−44 cm2 to 9.9\U+00d7\10−44 cm2 for WIMPs of mass 100 GeV/c2, and from 4.5\U+00d7\10−44 cm2 to 5.6\U+00d7\10−44 cm2 for WIMPs of mass 30 GeV/c2. In Chapter 6, I highlight the fact that a difficult task with many particle detectors focusing on interactions below ~100 keV is to perform a calibration in the appropriate energy range that adequately probes all regions of the detector. Because detector response can vary greatly in various locations within the device, a spatially uniform calibration is important. A new method for calibration of liquid xenon (LXe) detectors is presented, using the short-lived 83[superscript]mKr. This source has transitions at 9.4 and 32.1 keV, and as a noble gas like Xe, it disperses uniformly in all regions of the detector. Even for low source activities, the existence of the two transitions provides a method of identifying the decays that is free of background. At decreasing energies, the LXe light yield increases, while the amount of electric field quenching is diminished. Additionally, if any long-lived radioactive backgrounds are introduced by this method, it is shown that they will present less than 67\U+00d7\10−6 events kg−1 day−1 keV−1 of background in the next generation of LXe dark matter direct detection searches.
Author: Michael F. L'Annunziata Publisher: Academic Press ISBN: 0128143983 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 1110
Book Description
Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis: Radiation Physics and Detectors, Volume One, and Radioanalytical Applications, Volume Two, Fourth Edition, is an authoritative reference on the principles, practical techniques and procedures for the accurate measurement of radioactivity - everything from the very low levels encountered in the environment, to higher levels measured in radioisotope research, clinical laboratories, biological sciences, radionuclide standardization, nuclear medicine, nuclear power, and fuel cycle facilities, and in the implementation of nuclear forensic analysis and nuclear safeguards. It includes sample preparation techniques for all types of matrices found in the environment, including soil, water, air, plant matter and animal tissue, and surface swipes.Users will find a detailed discussion of our current understanding of the atomic nucleus, nuclear stability and decay, nuclear radiation, and the interaction of radiation with matter relating to the best methods for radionuclide detection and measurement. - Spans two volumes, Radiation Physics and Detectors and Radioanalytical Applications - Includes a much-expanded treatment of calculations required in the measurement of radionuclide decay, energy of decay, nuclear reactions, radiation attenuation, nuclear recoil, cosmic radiation, and synchrotron radiation - Includes the latest advances in liquid and solid scintillation analysis, alpha- and gamma spectrometry, mass spectrometric analysis, gas ionization and nuclear track analysis, and neutron detection and measurement - Covers high-sample-throughput microplate techniques and multi-detector assay methods
Author: Rouven Essig Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 3030315932 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 168
Book Description
Based on a Simons Symposium held in 2018, the proceedings in this volume focus on the theoretical, numerical, and observational quest for dark matter in the universe. Present ground-based and satellite searches have so far severely constrained the long-proposed theoretical models for dark matter. Nevertheless, there is continuously growing astrophysical and cosmological evidence for its existence. To address present and future developments in the field, novel ideas, theories, and approaches are called for. The symposium gathered together a new generation of experts pursuing innovative, more complex theories of dark matter than previously considered.This is being done hand in hand with experts in numerical astrophysical simulations and observational techniques—all paramount for deciphering the nature of dark matter. The proceedings volume provides coverage of the most advanced stage of understanding dark matter in various new frameworks. The collection will be useful for graduate students, postdocs, and investigators interested in cutting-edge research on one of the biggest mysteries of our universe.
Author: Brian Gregory Lenardo
Author: Brian Gregory Lenardo
Author: Matthew Anthony
Author: Dmitry Yu Akimov
Author: Yixiong Meng
Author: Vitaly Kudryavtsev
Author: Guillaume Plante
Author: Jacob Edward Cutter
Author: Aaron Gösta Manalaysay
Author: Michael F. L'Annunziata
Author: Rouven Essig