The proposed Mitchell Institute Neutrino Experiment at Reactor (MINER) experiment at the Nuclear Science Center at Texas A&M University will search for coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering ...within close proximity (about 2m) of a 1MW TRIGA nuclear reactor core using low threshold, cryogenic germanium and silicon detectors. Given the Standard Model cross section of the scattering process and the proposed experimental proximity to the reactor, as many as 5–20events/kg/day are expected. We discuss the status of preliminary measurements to characterize the main backgrounds for the proposed experiment. Both in situ measurements at the experimental site and simulations using the MCNP and GEANT4 codes are described. A strategy for monitoring backgrounds during data taking is briefly discussed.
Snags are important components of wildlife habitat, providing nesting and feeding sites for over 75 species of animals in the southwestern United States. Wildfires can increase or decrease the ...availability of snags to wildlife by killing live trees or incinerating snags. Our objectives were to describe dynamics and spatial patterns of fire-killed snags in ponderosa pine (
Pinus ponderosa) forests of northern Arizona and predict the probability of snag use by cavity nesters. We established six 1-ha plots following two recent fires that occurred in northern Arizona (Hochderffer fire of 1996 H96 and Pumpkin fire of 2000 P00) to determine ponderosa pine snag availability and use by wildlife as evidenced by presence of excavated cavities. For comparison, six paired 1-ha plots in nearby unburned areas were sampled with burned plots. For the twelve 1
ha plots, field methods included mapping and measuring 15 characteristics for 668 snags (630 in burned and 38 in unburned plots) 4 years post-fire on the H96 fire, and 1010 snags (996 in burned and 14 in unburned plots) 1 year post-fire on the P00 fire. We remeasured characteristics of all snags in 2003. Most burned snags were standing 3 years after fire, but 7 years after fire, 41% had fallen. Snags in burned plots were clumped when initially measured and remeasured. After 7 years, snags in burned plots that were still standing were straight, large diameter trees in denser clumps. Density of excavated cavities was similar between burned (3.0
ha
−1) and unburned (2.2
ha
−1) plots, even though burned areas produced much higher densities of snags. Snags (both burned and unburned) that were most likely to contain excavated cavities were large diameter with broken tops. This evidence of cavity nester use indicates that in ponderosa pine forests in the southwest, retaining large diameter snags is important to cavity nesters regardless of snag origin. If salvage logging is to occur in severely burned ponderosa pine in the southwest, retaining straight, large diameter snags in clumps will help maintain snags for cavity-excavating species.
Cryogenic semiconductor detectors operated at temperatures below 100 mK are commonly used in particle physics experiments searching for dark matter. The largest such germanium and silicon detectors, ...with diameters of 100 mm and thickness of 33 mm, are planned for use by the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) experiment at SNOLAB, Canada. Still larger individual detectors are being investigated to scale up the sensitive mass of future experiments. We present here the first results of testing two prototype 150 mm diameter silicon ionization detectors. The detectors are 25 mm and 33 mm thick with masses 1.7 and 2.2 times larger than those currently planned for SuperCDMS. These devices were operated with contact-free bias electrodes to minimize leakage currents which currently limit operation at high bias voltages. The results show promise for the use of such technologies in solid state cryogenic detectors.
This article presents an analysis and the resulting limits on light dark matter inelastically scattering off of electrons, and on dark photon and axionlike particle absorption, using a ...second-generation SuperCDMS high-voltage eV-resolution detector. The 0.93 g Si detector achieved a 3 eV phonon energy resolution; for a detector bias of 100 V, this corresponds to a charge resolution of 3% of a single electron-hole pair. The energy spectrum is reported from a blind analysis with 1.2 g-days of exposure acquired in an above-ground laboratory. With charge carrier trapping and impact ionization effects incorporated into the dark matter signal models, the dark matter-electron cross section σe is constrained for dark matter masses from 0.5 to 104 MeV / c2; in the mass range from 1.2 to 50 eV / c2 the dark photon kinetic mixing parameter ϵ and the axioelectric coupling constant gae are constrained. The minimum 90% confidence-level upper limits within the above-mentioned mass ranges are σe = 8.7 × 10−34 cm2, ϵ = 3.3 × 10−14, and gae = 1.0 × 10−9.
Low-energy nuclear recoils (NRs) are hard to measure, because they produce few e-/h+ pairs in solids—i.e., they have low “ionization yield.” A silicon detector was exposed to thermal neutrons over ...2.5 live days, probing NRs down to 450 eV. The observation of a neutron capture-induced component of NRs at low energies is supported by the much-improved fit upon inclusion of a capture NR model. This result shows that thermal neutron calibration of very low recoil energy NRs is promising for dark matter searches, coherent neutrino experiments, and improving understanding of ionization dynamics in solids.
We present the first limits on inelastic electron-scattering dark matter and dark photon absorption using a prototype SuperCDMS detector having a charge resolution of 0.1 electron-hole pairs (CDMS ...HVeV, a 0.93 g CDMS high-voltage device). These electron-recoil limits significantly improve experimental constraints on dark matter particles with masses as low as 1 MeV/c^{2}. We demonstrate a sensitivity to dark photons competitive with other leading approaches but using substantially less exposure (0.49 g d). These results demonstrate the scientific potential of phonon-mediated semiconductor detectors that are sensitive to single electronic excitations.
We present limits on spin-independent dark matter-nucleon interactions using a 10.6 g Si athermal phonon detector with a baseline energy resolution of σE = 3.86 ± 0.04 ( stat ) +0.19 −0.00 ( syst ) ...eV . This exclusion analysis sets the most stringent dark matter-nucleon scattering cross-section limits achieved by a cryogenic detector for dark matter particle masses from 93 to 140 MeV / c2 , with a raw exposure of 9.9 g d acquired at an above-ground facility. This work illustrates the scientific potential of detectors with athermal phonon sensors with eV-scale energy resolution for future dark matter searches.
SuperCDMS SNOLAB will be a next-generation experiment aimed at directly detecting low-mass particles (with masses ≤10 GeV/c2) that may constitute dark matter by using cryogenic detectors of two types ...(HV and iZIP) and two target materials (germanium and silicon). The experiment is being designed with an initial sensitivity to nuclear recoil cross sections ∼1×10−43 cm2 for a dark matter particle mass of 1 GeV/c2, and with capacity to continue exploration to both smaller masses and better sensitivities. The phonon sensitivity of the HV detectors will be sufficient to detect nuclear recoils from sub-GeV dark matter. A detailed calibration of the detector response to low-energy recoils will be needed to optimize running conditions of the HV detectors and to interpret their data for dark matter searches. Low-activity shielding, and the depth of SNOLAB, will reduce most backgrounds, but cosmogenically produced H3 and naturally occurring Si32 will be present in the detectors at some level. Even if these backgrounds are 10 times higher than expected, the science reach of the HV detectors would be over 3 orders of magnitude beyond current results for a dark matter mass of 1 GeV/c2. The iZIP detectors are relatively insensitive to variations in detector response and backgrounds, and will provide better sensitivity for dark matter particles with masses ≳5 GeV/c2. The mix of detector types (HV and iZIP), and targets (germanium and silicon), planned for the experiment, as well as flexibility in how the detectors are operated, will allow us to maximize the low-mass reach, and understand the backgrounds that the experiment will encounter. Upgrades to the experiment, perhaps with a variety of ultra-low-background cryogenic detectors, will extend dark matter sensitivity down to the “neutrino floor,” where coherent scatters of solar neutrinos become a limiting background.
The SuperCDMS experiment is designed to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that may constitute the dark matter in our Galaxy. During its operation at the Soudan Underground ...Laboratory, germanium detectors were run in the CDMSlite mode to gather data sets with sensitivity specifically for WIMPs with masses <10 GeV/c2. In this mode, a higher detector-bias voltage is applied to amplify the phonon signals produced by drifting charges. This paper presents studies of the experimental noise and its effect on the achievable energy threshold, which is demonstrated to be as low as 56 eVee (electron equivalent energy). The detector-biasing configuration is described in detail, with analysis corrections for voltage variations to the level of a few percent. Detailed studies of the electric-field geometry, and the resulting successful development of a fiducial parameter, eliminate poorly measured events, yielding an energy resolution ranging from ∼9 eVee at 0 keV to 101 eVee at ∼10 keVee. New results are derived for astrophysical uncertainties relevant to the WIMP-search limits, specifically examining how they are affected by variations in the most probable WIMP velocity and the Galactic escape velocity. These variations become more important for WIMP masses below 10 GeV/c2. Finally, new limits on spin-dependent low-mass WIMP-nucleon interactions are derived, with new parameter space excluded for WIMP masses ≲3 GeV/c2.
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