Related papers: Observables for Recoil Identification in High-Defi…
We propose a search for low mass dark matter particles through momentum recoils caused by their scattering from trapped, nm-scale objects. Our projections show that even with a modest array of fg-mass sensors, parameter-space beyond the…
The Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber (DMTPC) experiment uses CF_4 gas at low pressure (0.1 atm) to search for the directional signature of Galactic WIMP dark matter. We describe the DMTPC apparatus and summarize recent results from a…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the most preferred candidate for Dark Matter. WIMPs should interact with the nuclei of detectors. If a robust signal is eventually observed in direct detection experiments, the best…
The direct detection of Dark Matter particles with mass below the GeV-scale is hampered by soft nuclear recoil energies and finite detector thresholds. For a given maximum relative velocity, the kinematics of elastic Dark Matter nucleus…
Low-pressure gas Time Projection Chambers being developed for directional dark matter searches offer a technology with strong particle identification capability combined with the potential to produce a definitive detection of Galactic…
A neutral dark matter (DM) particle with a magnetic dipole moment has a very different direct detection phenomenology with respect to standard candidates. This is due to the peculiar functional form of the differential cross section for…
The cosmic ray flux at the lowest energies, $\lesssim 10$ GeV, is modulated by the solar cycle, inducing a time variation that is expected to carry over into the atmospheric neutrino flux at these energies. Here we estimate this time…
Spatial resolution of less than 200 um is challenging for thermal neutron detection. A novel readout scheme based on the time-projection-chamber (TPC) concept is used in a gaseous electron multiplier (GEM) detector. Thermal neutrons are…
We report the first measurement of discrimination between low-energy helium recoils and electron recoils in liquid xenon. This result is relevant to proposed low-mass dark matter searches which seek to dissolve light target nuclei in the…
We report an absolute energy response function to electronic and nuclear recoils for germanium and liquid xenon detectors. As a result, we show that the detection energy threshold of nuclear recoils for a dual-phase xenon detector can be a…
Directional detection is a promising dark matter search strategy. Indeed, weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP)-induced recoils would present a direction dependence toward the Cygnus constellation, while background-induced recoils…
Neutron detectors are an essential tool for the development of many research fields, as nuclear, particle and astroparticle physics as well as radiotherapy and radiation safety. Since neutrons cannot directly ionize, their detection is only…
We present the first paleo-detector dark matter sensitivity analysis based on a calorimetric readout, in which the number of stable lattice vacancies produced by each nuclear recoil is used as a per-event observable complementary to the…
A new fast neutron spectrometer named n-TPC has been designed by LPRI (Key Laboratory of Particle & Radiation Imaging, Ministry of Education) at Tsinghua University. The neutron energy spectrum can be calculated from the recoil angle and…
We study the dependence of the exposure required to directly detect a WIMP directional recoil signal on the capabilities of a directional detector. Specifically we consider variations in the nuclear recoil energy threshold, the background…
Direct-detection experiments sensitive to low-energy electron recoils from sub-GeV dark matter (DM) interactions will also be sensitive to solar neutrinos via coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering (CNS), since the recoiling nucleus can…
Neutrino-induced recoil events may constitute a background to direct dark matter searches, particularly for those detectors that strive to reach the ton-scale and beyond. This paper discusses the expected neutrino-induced background…
Directional dark matter detectors will be able to record the recoil momentum spectrum of nuclei hit by dark matter WIMPs. We show that the recoil momentum spectrum is the Radon transform of the WIMP velocity distribution. This allows us to…
Neutrinos are one of the least known elementary particles. The detection of neutrinos is an extremely difficult task since they are affected only by weak sub-atomic force or gravity. Therefore large detectors are constructed to reveal…
Germanium is the detector material of choice in many rare-event searches looking for low-energy nuclear recoils induced by dark matter particles or neutrinos. We perform a systematic exploration of its quenching factor for sub-keV nuclear…