Dual-phase xenon detectors, as currently used in direct detection dark matter experiments, have observed elevated rates of background electron events in the low energy region. While this background ...negatively impacts detector performance in various ways, its origins have only been partially studied. In this paper we report a systematic investigation of the electron pathologies observed in the LUX dark matter experiment. We characterize different electron populations based on their emission intensities and their correlations with preceding energy depositions in the detector. By studying the background under different experimental conditions, we identified the leading emission mechanisms, including photoionization and the photoelectric effect induced by the xenon luminescence, delayed emission of electrons trapped under the liquid surface, capture and release of drifting electrons by impurities, and grid electron emission. We discuss how these backgrounds can be mitigated in LUX and future xenon-based dark matter experiments.
The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment is a dark matter detector centered on a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. This ...Letter reports results from LUX-ZEPLIN's first search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with an exposure of 60 live days using a fiducial mass of 5.5 t. A profile-likelihood ratio analysis shows the data to be consistent with a background-only hypothesis, setting new limits on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon, spin-dependent WIMP-neutron, and spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross sections for WIMP masses above 9 GeV/c^{2}. The most stringent limit is set for spin-independent scattering at 36 GeV/c^{2}, rejecting cross sections above 9.2×10^{-48} cm at the 90% confidence level.
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a next-generation dark matter direct detection experiment that will operate 4850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, USA. ...Using a two-phase xenon detector with an active mass of 7 tonnes, LZ will search primarily for low-energy interactions with weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which are hypothesized to make up the dark matter in our galactic halo. In this paper, the projected WIMP sensitivity of LZ is presented based on the latest background estimates and simulations of the detector. For a 1000 live day run using a 5.6-tonne fiducial mass, LZ is projected to exclude at 90% confidence level spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross sections above 1.4 × 10−48 cm2 for a 40 GeV/c2 mass WIMP. Additionally, a 5 σ discovery potential is projected, reaching cross sections below the exclusion limits of recent experiments. For spin-dependent WIMP-neutron(-proton) scattering, a sensitivity of 2.3 × 10−43 cm2 (7.1 × 10−42 cm2) for a 40 GeV/c2 mass WIMP is expected. With underground installation well underway, LZ is on track for commissioning at SURF in 2020.
We report constraints on spin-independent weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP)-nucleon scattering using a 3.35×10^{4} kg day exposure of the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment. A ...dual-phase xenon time projection chamber with 250 kg of active mass is operated at the Sanford Underground Research Facility under Lead, South Dakota (USA). With roughly fourfold improvement in sensitivity for high WIMP masses relative to our previous results, this search yields no evidence of WIMP nuclear recoils. At a WIMP mass of 50 GeV c^{-2}, WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross sections above 2.2×10^{-46} cm^{2} are excluded at the 90% confidence level. When combined with the previously reported LUX exposure, this exclusion strengthens to 1.1×10^{-46} cm^{2} at 50 GeV c^{-2}.
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment is a dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Lead, South Dakota). The LUX cryostat was filled for ...the first time in the underground laboratory in February 2013. We report results of the first WIMP search data set, taken during the period from April to August 2013, presenting the analysis of 85.3 live days of data with a fiducial volume of 118 kg. A profile-likelihood analysis technique shows our data to be consistent with the background-only hypothesis, allowing 90% confidence limits to be set on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering with a minimum upper limit on the cross section of 7.6 × 10(-46) cm(2) at a WIMP mass of 33 GeV/c(2). We find that the LUX data are in disagreement with low-mass WIMP signal interpretations of the results from several recent direct detection experiments.
The scattering of dark matter (DM) particles with sub-GeV masses off nuclei is difficult to detect using liquid xenon-based DM search instruments because the energy transfer during nuclear recoils is ...smaller than the typical detector threshold. However, the tree-level DM-nucleus scattering diagram can be accompanied by simultaneous emission of a bremsstrahlung photon or a so-called "Migdal" electron. These provide an electron recoil component to the experimental signature at higher energies than the corresponding nuclear recoil. The presence of this signature allows liquid xenon detectors to use both the scintillation and the ionization signals in the analysis where the nuclear recoil signal would not be otherwise visible. We report constraints on spin-independent DM-nucleon scattering for DM particles with masses of 0.4-5 GeV/c^{2} using 1.4×10^{4} kg day of search exposure from the 2013 data from the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment for four different classes of mediators. This analysis extends the reach of liquid xenon-based DM search instruments to lower DM masses than has been achieved previously.
It is experimentally demonstrated with test transistors and circuits that hydrogen is correlated with enhanced low dose rate sensitivity (ELDRS) in bipolar linear circuits. These experiments show ...that the amount of hydrogen determines the total dose response versus dose rate, both the saturation at low dose rate and the transition dose rate between the high and low dose rate responses. The experimental results are supported with modeling calculations using REOS (radiation effects in oxides and semiconductors).
We present constraints on weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP)-nucleus scattering from the 2013 data of the Large Underground Xenon dark matter experiment, including 1.4×10^{4} kg day of ...search exposure. This new analysis incorporates several advances: single-photon calibration at the scintillation wavelength, improved event-reconstruction algorithms, a revised background model including events originating on the detector walls in an enlarged fiducial volume, and new calibrations from decays of an injected tritium β source and from kinematically constrained nuclear recoils down to 1.1 keV. Sensitivity, especially to low-mass WIMPs, is enhanced compared to our previous results which modeled the signal only above a 3 keV minimum energy. Under standard dark matter halo assumptions and in the mass range above 4 GeV c^{-2}, these new results give the most stringent direct limits on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section. The 90% C.L. upper limit has a minimum of 0.6 zb at 33 GeV c^{-2} WIMP mass.
This paper presents a brief synthesis of the current state of knowledge on the formation and break-up of the early-Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia, and the subsequent assembly of Gondwanaland. ...Our discussions are based on both palaeomagnetic constraints and on geological correlations of basement provinces, orogenic histories, sedimentary provenance, the development of continental rifts and passive margins, and the record of mantle plume events.
Rodinia assembled through worldwide orogenic events between 1300
Ma and 900
Ma, with all, or virtually all, continental blocks known to exist at that time likely being involved. In our preferred Rodinia model, the assembly process features the accretion or collision of continental blocks around the margin of Laurentia. Like the supercontinent Pangaea, Rodinia lasted about 150 million years after complete assembly. Mantle avalanches, caused by the sinking of stagnated slabs accumulated at the mantle transition zone surrounding the supercontinent, plus thermal insulation by the supercontinent, led to the formation of a mantle superswell (or superplume) beneath Rodinia 40–60 million years after the completion of its assembly. As a result, widespread continental rifting occurred between ca. 825
Ma and 740
Ma, with episodic plume events at ca. 825
Ma, ca. 780
Ma and ca. 750
Ma.
Like its assembly, the break-up of Rodinia occurred diachronously. The first major break-up event occurred along the western margin of Laurentia (present coordinates), possibly as early as 750
Ma. Rifting between the Amazonia craton and the southeastern margin of Laurentia started at approximately the same time, but only led to break-up after ca. 600
Ma. By this time most of the western Gondwanan continents had joined together, although the formation of Gondwanaland was not complete until ca. 530
Ma.
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