A G/NARRLI Effort. Measuring the Ionization Yield of Low-Energy Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Argon
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Liquid argon has long been used for particle detection due to its attractive drift properties, ample abundance, and reasonable density. The response of liquid argon to lowenergy O(102 -1044 eV) interactions is, however, largely unexplored. Weakly interacting massive particles such as neutrinos and hypothetical dark-matter particles (WIMPs) are predicted to coherently scatter on atomic nuclei, leaving only an isolated low-energy nuclear recoil as evidence. The response of liquid argon to low-energy nuclear recoils must be studied to determine the sensitivity of liquid argon based detectors to these unobserved interactions. Detectors sensitive to coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering may be used to monitor nuclear reactors from a distance, to detect neutrinos from supernova, and to test the predicted behavior of neutrinos. Additionally, direct detection of hypothetical weakly interacting dark matter would be a large step toward understanding the substance that accounts for nearly 27% of the universe. In this dissertation I discuss a small dual-phase (liquid-gas) argon proportional scintillation counter built to study the low-energy regime and several novel calibration and characterization techniques developed to study the response of liquid argon to low-energy O(102 -104 eV) interactions.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1132039
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-TH-654146
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
First measurement of the ionization yield of nuclear recoils in liquid argon
Low-Energy Physics Reach of Xenon Detectors for Nuclear-Recoil-Based Dark Matter and Neutrino Experiments