A buffer-free concept bubble chamber for PICO dark matter searches

Bressler, M.; Campion, P.; Cushman, V. S.; Morrese, A.; Wagner, J. M.; Zerbo, S.; Neilson, R.; Crisler, M.; Dahl, C. E.

doi:10.1088/1748-0221/14/08/P08019

A buffer-free concept bubble chamber for PICO dark matter searches

Journal Article · Mon Aug 19 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of Instrumentation

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/14/08/P08019· OSTI ID:1556983

Bressler, M. ^[1]; Campion, P. ^[1]; Cushman, V. S. ^[1]; Morrese, A. ^[1]; Wagner, J. M. ^[1]; Zerbo, S. ^[1]; Neilson, R. ^[1]; Crisler, M. ^[2]; Dahl, C. E. ^[3]

Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Physics
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

Here, we report on the successful operation at Drexel University of the PICO collaboration's first C₃F₈ buffer-free prototype fluorocarbon bubble chamber. Previous PICO bubble chambers have produced world-leading WIMP search results with fluorocarbon target fluids, separated from the steel bellows by a buffer layer of water. Surface tension effects at the jar walls and liquid-liquid interface lead to a class of background events which have nuclear-recoil-like acoustic signatures and thus contaminate the WIMP-like signal region in analysis. Thus new bubble chambers are to be constructed “right-side-up”, meaning that the jar of C₃F₈ is above the bellows with no water inside the inner vessel. The Drexel Bubble Chamber (DBC), runs successfully at and below the nuclear recoil thresholds used by PICO for WIMP searches, including thresholds as low as 1.19 keV . We have demonstrated sensitivity to ¹³⁷Cs gammas and spontaneous fission neutrons from ²⁴⁴Cm, and acoustic alpha discrimination is demonstrated to be possible although the observed rate of alpha decays is very low. Position reconstruction from stereoscopic imaging allows for basic analysis cuts for calibration data. The successful construction and operation of this prototype confirm the effectiveness of the right-side-up design, which will be used in future dark matter searches such as PICO-40L and PICO-500.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP) (SC-25)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-07CH11359

OSTI ID:: 1556983

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 22895964

Report Number(s):: FERMILAB-PUB--19-396-AE; arXiv:1905.07367; oai:inspirehep.net:1735411

Journal Information:: Journal of Instrumentation, Journal Name: Journal of Instrumentation Journal Issue: 08 Vol. 14; ISSN 1748-0221

Publisher:: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Data-driven modeling of electron recoil nucleation in PICO C 3 F 8 bubble chambers Amole, C.; Ardid, M.; Arnquist, I. J. Physical Review D, Vol. 100, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.100.082006	journal	October 2019

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