Liquid noble gas detectors for low energy particle physics

Chepel, V.; Araújo, H. M.

doi:10.1088/1748-0221/8/04/r04001

Cited by 263 publications

(348 citation statements)

References 388 publications

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“…A lowenergy threshold and calibration are critical in both dark matter searches and CENNS discovery. Both interactions exhibit a recoil energy spectrum that rises rapidly with decreasing energy [4,8,9]. Our results suggest that dark matter searches using only the ionization channel in liquid argon (as has been done in liquid xenon [10]) could probe an interesting new parameter space.…”

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confidence: 78%

First Measurement of the Ionization Yield of Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Argon

et al. 2014

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This Letter details a measurement of the ionization yield (Q y ) of 6.7 keV 40 Ar atoms stopping in a liquid argon detector. The Q y of 3.6-6.3 detected e − /keV, for applied electric fields in the range 240-2130 V/cm, is encouraging for the use of this detector medium to search for the signals from hypothetical dark matter particle interactions and from coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. A significant dependence of Q y on the applied electric field is observed and explained in the context of ion recombination. PACS numbers: 95.35.+d, 25.30.Pt, 34.50.Fa, 29.40.Mc Liquid-phase argon has long been used as a target medium for particle detection via scintillation and charge collection. Recently there has been considerable interest in direct detection of both hypothetical dark matter particles [1] and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CENNS) [2,3]. These as-yet unobserved neutral particle interactions are expected to result in a recoiling argon atom O(keV), generally referred to in the literature as a nuclear recoil. This prompts the question of the available signal produced by such recoils in a liquid argon detector. This quantity must be directly measured due to the difference in signals from nuclear recoils as opposed to electron recoils (e.g. Compton electrons and β-particles). In this Letter we report the first measurement of the ionization yield (Q y ) (detected electrons per unit energy) resulting from nuclear recoils in liquid argon, measured at 6.7 keV. This is also the lowest-energy measurement of nuclear recoils in liquid argon.These results are of interest not only for particle detection, but for theoretical studies of condensed media as well. Models of the production of ions and excited atoms from low-energy recoils in liquid argon exist, but are not fully understood in the few-keV energy range [4]. To study the influence of the electric field on recombination, and thus Q y , data were obtained at applied electric field values of 240, 640, 1600, 2130 V/cm.The scintillation efficiency of nuclear recoils in liquid argon has been measured from 10-250 keV at zero electric drift field using the kinematically constrained scatter of 2.8 MeV neutrons [5] and from 11-50 keV at electric drift fields from 0-1000 V/cm using the kinematically constrained scatter of 0.60 and 1.17 MeV neutrons [6]. No measurements of nuclear recoils in liquid argon exist below 10 keV.Liquid argon dual-phase detectors have been shown to be sensitive to single electrons generated in the bulk [7]. This enhances the detection capability of the ionization channel over the scintillation channel at very low energies. A lowenergy threshold and calibration are critical in both dark matter searches and CENNS discovery. Both interactions exhibit a recoil energy spectrum that rises rapidly with decreasing energy [4,8,9]. Our results suggest that dark matter searches using only the ionization channel in liquid argon (as has been done in liquid xenon [10]) could probe an interesting new parameter space. The observation and...

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confidence: 78%

First Measurement of the Ionization Yield of Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Argon

et al. 2014

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“…Indeed, in contrast to Xe, little has been known so far about the X-ray ionization yield in liquid Ar at energies below 300 keV [2], [11]. Accordingly, these data might be of particular interest for the energy calibration of dark matter and neutrino detectors using liquid Ar detection medium.…”

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confidence: 99%

X-ray ionization yields and energy spectra in liquid argon

Bondar

Dolgov

Sokolov

2016

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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The main purpose of this work is to provide reference data on X-ray ionization yields and energy spectra in liquid Ar to the studies in the field of Cryogenic Avalanche Detectors (CRADs) for rare-event and other experiments, based on liquid Ar detectors. We present the results of two related researches. First, the X-ray recombination coefficients in the energy range of 10-1000 keV and ionization yields at different electric fields, between 0.6 and 2.3 kV/cm, are determined in liquid Ar based on the results of a dedicated experiment. Second, the energy spectra of pulsed X-rays in liquid Ar in the energy range of 15-40 keV, obtained in given experiments including that with the two-phase CRAD, are interpreted and compared to those calculated using a computer program, to correctly determine the absorbed X-ray energy. The X-ray recombination coefficients and ionization yields have for the first time been presented for liquid Ar in systematic way.KEYWORDS: X-ray recombination coefficients and ionization yields in liquid argon; X-ray energy spectra in liquid argon.

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“…Interactions in the liquid produce prompt scintillation (S1) and ionization electrons that drift in an applied electric field [12]. Electrons are extracted into the gas, where they produce electroluminescence (S2).…”

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First Results from the LUX Dark Matter Experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility

Akerib¹,

Araújo²,

Bai³

et al. 2014

Phys. Rev. Lett.

1,471

1,890

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The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment is a dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Lead, South Dakota). The LUX cryostat was filled for the first time in the underground laboratory in February 2013. We report results of the first WIMP search dataset, taken during the period April to August 2013, presenting the analysis of 85.3 live-days of data with a fiducial volume of 118 kg. A profile-likelihood analysis technique shows our data to be consistent with the background-only hypothesis, allowing 90% confidence limits to be set on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering with a minimum upper limit on the cross section of 7.6 × 10 −46 cm 2 at a WIMP mass of 33 GeV/c 2 . We find that the LUX data are in disagreement with low-mass WIMP signal interpretations of the results from several recent direct detection experiments.PACS numbers: 95.35.+d, 95.55.Vj

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Liquid noble gas detectors for low energy particle physics

Cited by 263 publications

References 388 publications

First Measurement of the Ionization Yield of Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Argon

First Measurement of the Ionization Yield of Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Argon

X-ray ionization yields and energy spectra in liquid argon

First Results from the LUX Dark Matter Experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility

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