Mineral detection of neutrinos and dark matter. A whitepaper

Journal Article · Fri May 05 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Physics of the Dark Universe

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dark.2023.101245· OSTI ID:1991959

Baum, Sebastian  ^[1]; Stengel, Patrick ^[2]; Abe, Natsue ^[3]; Acevedo, Javier F. ^[4]; Araujo, Gabriela R. ^[5]; Asahara, Yoshihiro ^[6]; Avignone, Frank ^[7]; Balogh, Levente ^[8]; Baudis, Laura ^[5]; Boukhtouchen, Yilda ^[8]; Bramante, Joseph ^[9]; Breur, Pieter Alexander ^[4]; Caccianiga, Lorenzo ^[10]; Capozzi, Francesco ^[11]; Collar, Juan I. ^[12]; Ebadi, Reza ^[13]; Edwards, Thomas ^[14]; Eitel, Klaus ^[15]; Elykov, Alexey ^[15]; Ewing, Rodney C. ^[1] ; Freese, Katherine ^[16]; Fung, Audrey ^[8]; Galelli, Claudio ^[17]; Glasmacher, Ulrich A. ^[18]; Gleason, Arianna ^[4]; Hasebe, Noriko ^[19]; Hirose, Shigenobu ^[3]; Horiuchi, Shunsaku ^[20]; Hoshino, Yasushi ^[19]; Huber, Patrick ^[21]; Ido, Yuki ^[22]; Igami, Yohei ^[23]; Ishikawa, Norito ^[24]; Itow, Yoshitaka ^[6]; Kamiyama, Takashi ^[25]; Kato, Takenori ^[6]; Kavanagh, Bradley J. ^[26]; Kawamura, Yoji ^[3]; Kazama, Shingo ^[6]; Kenney, Christopher J. ^[4]; Kilminster, Ben ^[5]; Kouketsu, Yui ^[6]; Kozaka, Yukiko ^[27]; Kurinsky, Noah A. ^[4]; Leybourne, Matthew ^[8]; Lucas, Thalles ^[8]; McDonough, William F. ^[28]; Marshall, Mason C. ^[13]; Mateos, Jose Maria ^[5]; Mathur, Anubhav ^[14]; Michibayashi, Katsuyoshi ^[6]; Mkhonto, Sharlotte ^[8]; Murase, Kohta ^[29]; Naka, Tatsuhiro ^[22]; Oguni, Kenji ^[3]; Rajendran, Surjeet ^[14]; Sakane, Hitoshi ^[30]; Sala, Paola ^[10]; Scholberg, Kate ^[31]; Semenec, Ingrida ^[8]; Shiraishi, Takuya ^[22]; Spitz, Joshua ^[32]; Sun, Kai ^[32]; Suzuki, Katsuhiko ^[3]; Tanin, Erwin H. ^[14]; Vincent, Aaron ^[8]; Vladimirov, Nikita ^[5]; Walsworth, Ronald L. ^[13]; Watanabe, Hiroko ^[33]

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1. Stanford University, CA (United States)
2. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Ferrara (Italy)
3. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokohama (Japan)
4. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
5. University of Zurich (Switzerland)
6. Nagoya University (Japan)
7. University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States)
8. Queen's University, Kingston, ON (Canada)
9. Queen's University, Kingston, ON (Canada); Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, ON (Canada)
10. Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Milano (Italy)
11. Universita degli Studi dell'Aquila, L'Aquila (Italy)
12. University of Chicago, IL (United States)
13. University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
14. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (United States)
15. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (Germany)
16. University of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Stockholm University (Sweden)
17. Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy)
18. Heidelberg University (Germany)
19. Kanazawa University (Japan)
20. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States); University of Tokyo (Japan)
21. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States)
22. Toho University, Miyama (Japan)
23. Kyoto University (Japan)
24. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Ibaraki (Japan)
25. Hokkaido University, Sapporo (Japan)
26. University of Cantabria, Santander, Cantabria (Spain)
27. Kochi University (Japan)
28. Tohoku University, Sendai (Japan); University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
29. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA (United States); Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States); Kyoto University (Japan)
30. SHI-ATEX Co., Ltd., Saijo (Japan)
31. Duke University, Durham, NC (United States)
32. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
33. Tohoku University, Sendai (Japan)

Minerals are solid state nuclear track detectors — nuclear recoils in a mineral leave latent damage to the crystal structure. Depending on the mineral and its temperature, the damage features are retained in the material from minutes (in low-melting point materials such as salts at a few hundred $°\mathrm{C}$) to timescales much larger than the 4.5Gyr-age of the Solar System (in refractory materials at room temperature). The damage features from the $\mathcal{O}\left(50\right)\mathrm{MeV}$ fission fragments left by spontaneous fission of ²³⁸U and other heavy unstable isotopes have long been used for fission track dating of geological samples. Laboratory studies have demonstrated the readout of defects caused by nuclear recoils with energies as small as $\mathcal{O}\left(1\right)$keV. This whitepaper discusses a wide range of possible applications of minerals as detectors for $E_R\gtrsim \mathcal{O}\left(1\right)$keV nuclear recoils: Using natural minerals, one could use the damage features accumulated over $\mathcal{O}\left(10\right)\mathrm{Myr}\text{–}\mathcal{O}\left(1\right)$Gyr to measure astrophysical neutrino fluxes (from the Sun, supernovae, or cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere) as well as search for Dark Matter. Using signals accumulated over months to few-years timescales in laboratory-manufactured minerals, one could measure reactor neutrinos or use them as Dark Matter detectors, potentially with directional sensitivity. Research groups in Europe, Asia, and America have started developing microscopy techniques to read out the $\mathcal{O}\left(1\right)\text{–}\mathcal{O}\left(100\right)\mathrm{nm}$ damage features in crystals left by $\mathcal{O}(0.1)\text{–}\mathcal{O}\left(100\right)$keV nuclear recoils. We report on the status and plans of these programs. In conclusion, the research program towards the realization of such detectors is highly interdisciplinary, combining geoscience, material science, applied and fundamental physics with techniques from quantum information and Artificial Intelligence.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0022021; SC0020262; NA0003920; AC02-07CH11359; SC0021654
• OSTI ID: 1991959
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 2000969
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB-23-501-SQMS-V; arXiv:2301.07118; TRN: US2404143
• Journal Information: Physics of the Dark Universe, Vol. 41; ISSN 2212-6864
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS