Minerals are solid state nuclear track detectors — nuclear recoils in a mineral leave latent damage to the crystal structure. Depending on the mineral and its temperature, the damage features are ...retained in the material from minutes (in low-melting point materials such as salts at a few hundred °C) to timescales much larger than the 4.5Gyr-age of the Solar System (in refractory materials at room temperature). The damage features from the O(50)MeV fission fragments left by spontaneous fission of 238U and other heavy unstable isotopes have long been used for fission track dating of geological samples. Laboratory studies have demonstrated the readout of defects caused by nuclear recoils with energies as small as O(1)keV. This whitepaper discusses a wide range of possible applications of minerals as detectors for ER≳O(1)keV nuclear recoils: Using natural minerals, one could use the damage features accumulated over O(10)Myr–O(1)Gyr to measure astrophysical neutrino fluxes (from the Sun, supernovae, or cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere) as well as search for Dark Matter. Using signals accumulated over months to few-years timescales in laboratory-manufactured minerals, one could measure reactor neutrinos or use them as Dark Matter detectors, potentially with directional sensitivity. Research groups in Europe, Asia, and America have started developing microscopy techniques to read out the O(1)–O(100)nm damage features in crystals left by O(0.1)–O(100)keV nuclear recoils. We report on the status and plans of these programs. The research program towards the realization of such detectors is highly interdisciplinary, combining geoscience, material science, applied and fundamental physics with techniques from quantum information and Artificial Intelligence.
This article presents the results of studies of the 13 species belonging to 6 sections of the genus Thalictrum L. The analysis of petiole anatomical structure allowed to detect a complex of the ...diagnostic characters for identification of the Thalictrum species.
The second "Mineral Detection of Neutrinos and Dark Matter" (MDvDM'24) meeting was held January 8-11, 2024 in Arlington, VA, USA, hosted by Virginia Tech's Center for Neutrino Physics. This document ...collects contributions from this workshop, providing an overview of activities in the field. MDvDM'24 was the second topical workshop dedicated to the emerging field of mineral detection of neutrinos and dark matter, following a meeting hosted by IFPU in Trieste, Italy in October 2022. Mineral detectors have been proposed for a wide variety of applications, including searching for dark matter, measuring various fluxes of astrophysical neutrinos over gigayear timescales, monitoring nuclear reactors, and nuclear disarmament protocols; both as paleo-detectors using natural minerals that could have recorded the traces of nuclear recoils for timescales as long as a billion years and as detectors recording nuclear recoil events on laboratory timescales using natural or artificial minerals. Contributions to this proceedings discuss the vast physics potential, the progress in experimental studies, and the numerous challenges lying ahead on the path towards mineral detection. These include a better understanding of the formation and annealing of recoil defects in crystals; identifying the best classes of minerals and, for paleo-detectors, understanding their geology; modeling and control of the relevant backgrounds; developing, combining, and scaling up imaging and data analysis techniques; and many others. During the last years, MDvDM has grown rapidly and gained attention. Small-scale experimental efforts focused on establishing various microscopic readout techniques are underway at institutions in North America, Europe and Asia. We are looking ahead to an exciting future full of challenges to overcome, surprises to be encountered, and discoveries lying ahead of us.
Minerals are solid state nuclear track detectors - nuclear recoils in a mineral leave latent damage to the crystal structure. Depending on the mineral and its temperature, the damage features are ...retained in the material from minutes (in low-melting point materials such as salts at a few hundred degrees C) to timescales much larger than the 4.5 Gyr-age of the Solar System (in refractory materials at room temperature). The damage features from the \(O(50)\) MeV fission fragments left by spontaneous fission of \(^{238}\)U and other heavy unstable isotopes have long been used for fission track dating of geological samples. Laboratory studies have demonstrated the readout of defects caused by nuclear recoils with energies as small as \(O(1)\) keV. This whitepaper discusses a wide range of possible applications of minerals as detectors for \(E_R \gtrsim O(1)\) keV nuclear recoils: Using natural minerals, one could use the damage features accumulated over \(O(10)\) Myr\(-O(1)\) Gyr to measure astrophysical neutrino fluxes (from the Sun, supernovae, or cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere) as well as search for Dark Matter. Using signals accumulated over months to few-years timescales in laboratory-manufactured minerals, one could measure reactor neutrinos or use them as Dark Matter detectors, potentially with directional sensitivity. Research groups in Europe, Asia, and America have started developing microscopy techniques to read out the \(O(1) - O(100)\) nm damage features in crystals left by \(O(0.1) - O(100)\) keV nuclear recoils. We report on the status and plans of these programs. The research program towards the realization of such detectors is highly interdisciplinary, combining geoscience, material science, applied and fundamental physics with techniques from quantum information and Artificial Intelligence.
