DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

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

Journal Article · · Journal of Instrumentation
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
  3. 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.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1556983
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1905.07367; FERMILAB-PUB-19-396-AE; oai:inspirehep.net:1735411
Journal Information:
Journal of Instrumentation, Vol. 14, Issue 08; ISSN 1748-0221
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (17)

Dark Matter Search Results from the PICO-2L C 3 F 8 Bubble Chamber journal June 2015
Improved dark matter search results from PICO-2L Run 2 journal March 2016
Dark Matter Search Results from the PICO − 60   C 3 F 8 Bubble Chamber journal June 2017
Dark matter search results from the PICO-60 CF 3 I bubble chamber journal March 2016
First dark matter search results from a 4-kg CF 3 I bubble chamber operated in a deep underground site journal September 2012
Characteristics of Bubble Chambers journal January 1955
Dark matter search results from the complete exposure of the PICO-60 C 3 F 8 bubble chamber journal July 2019
Discrimination of nuclear recoils from alpha particles with superheated liquids journal October 2008
Detectability of certain dark-matter candidates journal June 1985
Some Effects of Ionizing Radiation on the Formation of Bubbles in Liquids journal August 1952
On the Theory of the Bubble Chamber journal January 1958
First Demonstration of a Scintillating Xenon Bubble Chamber for Detecting Dark Matter and Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering journal June 2017
Direct measurement of the bubble-nucleation energy threshold in a CF 3 I bubble chamber journal July 2013
Sensitivity of the PICO-500 bubble chamber to supernova neutrinos through coherent nuclear elastic scattering journal February 2019
Discrimination of nuclear recoils from alpha particles with superheated liquids text January 2008
Improved dark matter search results from PICO-2L Run 2 text January 2016
Sensitivity of the PICO-500 Bubble Chamber to Supernova Neutrinos Through Coherent Nuclear Elastic Scattering text January 2018