Liquid xenon scintillation measurements and pulse shape discrimination in the LUX dark matter detector
Abstract
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are a leading candidate for dark matter and are expected to produce nuclear recoil (NR) events within liquid xenon time-projection chambers. We present a measurement of the scintillation timing characteristics of liquid xenon in the LUX dark matter detector and develop a pulse shape discriminant to be used for particle identification. To accurately measure the timing characteristics, we develop a template-fitting method to reconstruct the detection times of photons. Analyzing calibration data collected during the 2013–2016 LUX WIMP search, we provide a new measurement of the singlet-to-triplet scintillation ratio for electron recoils (ER) below 46 keV, and we make, to our knowledge, a first-ever measurement of the NR singlet-to-triplet ratio at recoil energies below 74 keV. We exploit the difference of the photon time spectra for NR and ER events by using a prompt fraction discrimination parameter, which is optimized using calibration data to have the least number of ER events that occur in a 50% NR acceptance region. We then demonstrate how this discriminant can be used in conjunction with the charge-to-light discrimination to possibly improve the signal-to-noise ratio for nuclear recoils.
- Authors:
- more »
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of Rochester, NY (United States); Brown Univ., Providence, RI (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Contributing Org.:
- LUX Collaboration
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1457784
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1436669; OSTI ID: 1441120; OSTI ID: 1502026; OSTI ID: 1532649
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-752062
Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010; PRVDAQ; TRN: US1901406
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515; AC02-05CH11231; AC05-06OR23100; AC52-07NA27344; FG01-91ER40618; FG02-08ER41549; FG02-11ER41738; FG02-91ER40674; FG02-91ER40688; FG02-95ER40917; NA0000979; SC0006605; SC0010010; SC0015535; PHY-0750671; PHY-0801536; PHY-1003660; PHY-1004661; PHY-1102470; PHY-1312561; PHY-1347449; PHY-1505868; PHY-1636738; RA0350; PTDC/FIS-NUC/1525/2014; LLNL-JRNL-752062; FG02- 08ER41549; FG02- 91ER40674; FG02- 95ER40917; PHY- 1312561; PHY- 1636738; IE120804; ST/K502042/1; ST/K502406/1; ST/M503538/1; SC0017891
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review D
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 97; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; 73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Citation Formats
Akerib, D. S., Alsum, S., Araújo, H. M., Bai, X., Bailey, A. J., Balajthy, J., Beltrame, P., Bernard, E. P., Bernstein, A., Biesiadzinski, T. P., Boulton, E. M., Brás, P., Byram, D., Carmona-Benitez, M. C., Chan, C., Currie, A., Cutter, J. E., Davison, T. J. R., Dobi, A., Druszkiewicz, E., Edwards, B. N., Fallon, S. R., Fan, A., Fiorucci, S., Gaitskell, R. J., Genovesi, J., Ghag, C., Gilchriese, M. G. D., Hall, C. R., Haselschwardt, S. J., Hertel, S. A., Hogan, D. P., Horn, M., Huang, D. Q., Ignarra, C. M., Jacobsen, R. G., Ji, W., Kamdin, K., Kazkaz, K., Khaitan, D., Knoche, R., Lenardo, B. G., Lesko, K. T., Liao, J., Lindote, A., Lopes, M. I., Manalaysay, A., Mannino, R. L., Marzioni, M. F., McKinsey, D. N., Mei, D. -M., Mock, J., Moongweluwan, M., Morad, J. A., Murphy, A. St. J., Nehrkorn, C., Nelson, H. N., Neves, F., O’Sullivan, K., Oliver-Mallory, K. C., Palladino, K. J., Pease, E. K., Rhyne, C., Shaw, S., Shutt, T. A., Silva, C., Solmaz, M., Solovov, V. N., Sorensen, P., Sumner, T. J., Szydagis, M., Taylor, D. J., Taylor, W. C., Tennyson, B. P., Terman, P. A., Tiedt, D. R., To, W. H., Tripathi, M., Tvrznikova, L., Utku, U., Uvarov, S., Velan, V., Verbus, J. R., Webb, R. C., White, J. T., Whitis, T. J., Witherell, M. S., Wolfs, F. L. H., Xu, J., Yazdani, K., Young, S. K., and Zhang, C. Liquid xenon scintillation measurements and pulse shape discrimination in the LUX dark matter detector. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1103/physrevd.97.112002.
Akerib, D. S., Alsum, S., Araújo, H. M., Bai, X., Bailey, A. J., Balajthy, J., Beltrame, P., Bernard, E. P., Bernstein, A., Biesiadzinski, T. P., Boulton, E. M., Brás, P., Byram, D., Carmona-Benitez, M. C., Chan, C., Currie, A., Cutter, J. E., Davison, T. J. R., Dobi, A., Druszkiewicz, E., Edwards, B. N., Fallon, S. R., Fan, A., Fiorucci, S., Gaitskell, R. J., Genovesi, J., Ghag, C., Gilchriese, M. G. D., Hall, C. R., Haselschwardt, S. J., Hertel, S. A., Hogan, D. P., Horn, M., Huang, D. Q., Ignarra, C. M., Jacobsen, R. G., Ji, W., Kamdin, K., Kazkaz, K., Khaitan, D., Knoche, R., Lenardo, B. G., Lesko, K. T., Liao, J., Lindote, A., Lopes, M. I., Manalaysay, A., Mannino, R. L., Marzioni, M. F., McKinsey, D. N., Mei, D. -M., Mock, J., Moongweluwan, M., Morad, J. A., Murphy, A. St. J., Nehrkorn, C., Nelson, H. N., Neves, F., O’Sullivan, K., Oliver-Mallory, K. C., Palladino, K. J., Pease, E. K., Rhyne, C., Shaw, S., Shutt, T. A., Silva, C., Solmaz, M., Solovov, V. N., Sorensen, P., Sumner, T. J., Szydagis, M., Taylor, D. J., Taylor, W. C., Tennyson, B. P., Terman, P. A., Tiedt, D. R., To, W. H., Tripathi, M., Tvrznikova, L., Utku, U., Uvarov, S., Velan, V., Verbus, J. R., Webb, R. C., White, J. T., Whitis, T. J., Witherell, M. S., Wolfs, F. L. H., Xu, J., Yazdani, K., Young, S. K., & Zhang, C. Liquid xenon scintillation measurements and pulse shape discrimination in the LUX dark matter detector. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.97.112002
Akerib, D. S., Alsum, S., Araújo, H. M., Bai, X., Bailey, A. J., Balajthy, J., Beltrame, P., Bernard, E. P., Bernstein, A., Biesiadzinski, T. P., Boulton, E. M., Brás, P., Byram, D., Carmona-Benitez, M. C., Chan, C., Currie, A., Cutter, J. E., Davison, T. J. R., Dobi, A., Druszkiewicz, E., Edwards, B. N., Fallon, S. R., Fan, A., Fiorucci, S., Gaitskell, R. J., Genovesi, J., Ghag, C., Gilchriese, M. G. D., Hall, C. R., Haselschwardt, S. J., Hertel, S. A., Hogan, D. P., Horn, M., Huang, D. Q., Ignarra, C. M., Jacobsen, R. G., Ji, W., Kamdin, K., Kazkaz, K., Khaitan, D., Knoche, R., Lenardo, B. G., Lesko, K. T., Liao, J., Lindote, A., Lopes, M. I., Manalaysay, A., Mannino, R. L., Marzioni, M. F., McKinsey, D. N., Mei, D. -M., Mock, J., Moongweluwan, M., Morad, J. A., Murphy, A. St. J., Nehrkorn, C., Nelson, H. N., Neves, F., O’Sullivan, K., Oliver-Mallory, K. C., Palladino, K. J., Pease, E. K., Rhyne, C., Shaw, S., Shutt, T. A., Silva, C., Solmaz, M., Solovov, V. N., Sorensen, P., Sumner, T. J., Szydagis, M., Taylor, D. J., Taylor, W. C., Tennyson, B. P., Terman, P. A., Tiedt, D. R., To, W. H., Tripathi, M., Tvrznikova, L., Utku, U., Uvarov, S., Velan, V., Verbus, J. R., Webb, R. C., White, J. T., Whitis, T. J., Witherell, M. S., Wolfs, F. L. H., Xu, J., Yazdani, K., Young, S. K., and Zhang, C. Mon .
"Liquid xenon scintillation measurements and pulse shape discrimination in the LUX dark matter detector". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.97.112002. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1457784.
@article{osti_1457784,
title = {Liquid xenon scintillation measurements and pulse shape discrimination in the LUX dark matter detector},
author = {Akerib, D. S. and Alsum, S. and Araújo, H. M. and Bai, X. and Bailey, A. J. and Balajthy, J. and Beltrame, P. and Bernard, E. P. and Bernstein, A. and Biesiadzinski, T. P. and Boulton, E. M. and Brás, P. and Byram, D. and Carmona-Benitez, M. C. and Chan, C. and Currie, A. and Cutter, J. E. and Davison, T. J. R. and Dobi, A. and Druszkiewicz, E. and Edwards, B. N. and Fallon, S. R. and Fan, A. and Fiorucci, S. and Gaitskell, R. J. and Genovesi, J. and Ghag, C. and Gilchriese, M. G. D. and Hall, C. R. and Haselschwardt, S. J. and Hertel, S. A. and Hogan, D. P. and Horn, M. and Huang, D. Q. and Ignarra, C. M. and Jacobsen, R. G. and Ji, W. and Kamdin, K. and Kazkaz, K. and Khaitan, D. and Knoche, R. and Lenardo, B. G. and Lesko, K. T. and Liao, J. and Lindote, A. and Lopes, M. I. and Manalaysay, A. and Mannino, R. L. and Marzioni, M. F. and McKinsey, D. N. and Mei, D. -M. and Mock, J. and Moongweluwan, M. and Morad, J. A. and Murphy, A. St. J. and Nehrkorn, C. and Nelson, H. N. and Neves, F. and O’Sullivan, K. and Oliver-Mallory, K. C. and Palladino, K. J. and Pease, E. K. and Rhyne, C. and Shaw, S. and Shutt, T. A. and Silva, C. and Solmaz, M. and Solovov, V. N. and Sorensen, P. and Sumner, T. J. and Szydagis, M. and Taylor, D. J. and Taylor, W. C. and Tennyson, B. P. and Terman, P. A. and Tiedt, D. R. and To, W. H. and Tripathi, M. and Tvrznikova, L. and Utku, U. and Uvarov, S. and Velan, V. and Verbus, J. R. and Webb, R. C. and White, J. T. and Whitis, T. J. and Witherell, M. S. and Wolfs, F. L. H. and Xu, J. and Yazdani, K. and Young, S. K. and Zhang, C.},
abstractNote = {Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are a leading candidate for dark matter and are expected to produce nuclear recoil (NR) events within liquid xenon time-projection chambers. We present a measurement of the scintillation timing characteristics of liquid xenon in the LUX dark matter detector and develop a pulse shape discriminant to be used for particle identification. To accurately measure the timing characteristics, we develop a template-fitting method to reconstruct the detection times of photons. Analyzing calibration data collected during the 2013–2016 LUX WIMP search, we provide a new measurement of the singlet-to-triplet scintillation ratio for electron recoils (ER) below 46 keV, and we make, to our knowledge, a first-ever measurement of the NR singlet-to-triplet ratio at recoil energies below 74 keV. We exploit the difference of the photon time spectra for NR and ER events by using a prompt fraction discrimination parameter, which is optimized using calibration data to have the least number of ER events that occur in a 50% NR acceptance region. We then demonstrate how this discriminant can be used in conjunction with the charge-to-light discrimination to possibly improve the signal-to-noise ratio for nuclear recoils.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevd.97.112002},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 11,
volume = 97,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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Figures / Tables:
FIG. 1: Ratio of corrected to raw S1 pulse area in detected photons (phd) for both tritium (blue) and DD neutron (red) calibration data. The corrected photon count is computed using Eq. 3.2 with $C$ = 1:04. The black dashed line has a slope $m$ = 1, and is shownmore »
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