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DEAP-3600 is a liquid argon detector designed to directly detect dark matter by searching for nuclear recoil (NR) events caused by elastically scattered weakly interacting massive particles, a prime candidate for dark matter. Pulse-shape discrimination properties of the argon allow for significant separation between electromagnetic recoil (ER) events and NR events. The majority of the events in the ER spectrum are beta decays of Ar-39, which is an isotope naturally present in argon. Several efforts are underway to study the Ar-39 spectrum in DEAP-3600. In order to perform these studies, we must have an extensive understanding of the possible background in the ER spectrum. A possible background contribution to this spectrum are events from Kr-85, a radioactive isotope that can potentially bypass the purification methods used to fill the detector with argon. Trace amounts of Kr-85 are produced in the atmosphere via interactions with cosmic rays and Kr-84, which could be present in atmospheric argon. Given that the beta spectrum endpoint (Q-value) of Kr-85 is slightly higher than Ar-39, excess events in the region just above the Q-value of Ar-39 are expected if there is any contamination by Kr-85. A full spectrum fit was done to search for potential contributions from this isotope.

CAP Virtual Congress 2021

Constraining contributions from Kr-85 in DEAP-3600

liquid argon

beta decay

dark matter

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poster

DEAP-3600, hosted at SNOLAB, has been designed for the search of WIMPs, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles; its target of 3.3 t of liquid argon is the largest direct detection experiment. In addition to its sensitivity to WIMPs, DEAP-3600 is sensitive to super-massive dark matter candidates with masses up to the Planck scale. At dark matter-argon cross-sections above 10^{-24} cm^2 and dark matter masses above 10^{16} GeV, dark matter particles are expected to reach an underground experiment and give a detectable signal in liquid argon; indeed particles at lower masses and such high cross-sections are eventually stopped by the overburden. Moreover, due to the large cross-section, all MIMPs that enter the detector are expected to produce signals; as a consequence, the sensitivity to high masses depends on the cross-sectional area of the detector. The expected signal in DEAP-3600 is a collinear sequence of nuclear recoils in the same acquisition window, giving a very clear and unique signature;hence, we refer to them as MIMPs, Multi-interacting Massive Particles. In the present talk, the search for MIMPs in three years of data-taking is presented, showing the first search for multi-scattering dark matter in noble liquids ever performed.

Multi-Interacting Massive Particles in DEAP-3600

The highest energy range of the solar neutrino spectrum is dominated by $^8$B neutrinos produced in the pp-chain in the Sun and by hep neutrinos. R.S. Raghavan, K. Bhattacharya, and others have predicted that neutrino absorption with $^{40}$Ar is a possible interaction for neutrinos with energies above 3.9 MeV. In this case, neutrino induced nuclear transitions from $^{40}$Ar to $^{40}$K are feasible. One possible transition produces a delayed coincidence signature with a mean lifetime of 480 ns. A search for this process relies on understanding the backgrounds for this search, specifically neutron capture gammas. These neutrons include both radiogenic neutrons from PMTs and detector materials and cosmogenic neutrons from muon interactions with the surrounding rock. We propose to search for this process using 3 years of data from the DEAP-3600 dark matter experiment and present the latest efforts in this on-going study. DEAP-3600 is a liquid argon (LAr) direct dark matter experiment based at SNOLAB that is designed to detect WIMP-nucleon scattering in argon. The experiment's ultra-low background, high sensitivity and its large target mass could make it possible to observe this process for the first time.

A search for neutrino absorption with 40Ar using the DEAP-3600 detector

EMPHATIC (Experiment to Measure the Production of Hadrons At a Testbeam In Chicagoland) is a low-cost, table-top-sized, hadron-production experiment located at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility (FTBF) that will measure hadron scattering and production cross sections that are relevant for neutrino flux predictions. High statistics data will be collected using a minimum bias trigger, enabling measurements of both interacting and non-interacting cross sections. Particle identification will be done using a compact aerogel+heavy gas hybrid ring imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector, a time-of-flight (ToF) wall, and a lead glass calorimeter array. The ARICH focuses on the kaons, pions and protons separation with multi-track capability up to 8 GeV/c. This presentation is about the implementation of optical reflectors in the ARICH system to reflect Cherenkov light outside of the PMT array acceptance onto the PMT array increasing the angular acceptance of the experiment with a low cost improvement.

Optical reflectors in an ARICH detector for a hadron production experiment

From 2015 to 2018, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collided protons at an unprecedented center of mass energy of s=√13 TeV. The ATLAS detector recorded an integrated luminosity of 139fb$^{-1}$ of these collisions. This offers an unprecedented opportunity for physicists to test the Standard Model by measuring predicted but yet unobserved rare processes. The triboson W$\gamma\gamma$ production is one of these unobserved processes. Its sensitivity to the electroweak trilinear and quartic gauge couplings make it a great probe of new physics phenomena as Beyond Standard Model processes could affect the effective strength of these couplings. The dominant source of background to the search for W$\gamma\gamma$ production are jets being misidentified as photons. The advanced data-driven technique used to estimate this background will be presented. Furthermore, preliminary studies of the dominant systematic uncertainties impacting the expected significance of the measurement will be presented.

Study of Wyy tri-boson production in proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS detector

The major ongoing upgrade of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN consists in the replacement of parts of its muon spectrometer. The so-called New Small Wheels (NSWs) will be covered with two detector types that must trigger on and track outgoing particles - one type is small-strip thin gap chambers (sTGCs) assembled into modules of four layers. Canadian-built sTGC modules are characterized at McGill University using cosmic rays before being shipped to CERN for integration into the wheels. To achieve the design tracking performance, misalignments between sTGC layers must be corrected for. The charge profile left by an x-ray gun and coordinate measuring machine (CMM) measurements of quadruplet layers are being used to define these parameters. Work on using cosmic ray data to validate misalignment parameters derived using the above-mentioned methods will be presented.

Validating misalignment measurements between particle detectors for the ATLAS New Small Wheels

MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles) is a long-lived particle (LLP) detector which would be constructed on the surface above CMS and is currently in its planning stages. This large-area detector would be composed of several layers of solid plastic scintillator, with wavelength-shifting fibers connected to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), allowing us to monitor an empty air-filled decay volume. The purpose of this research is to examine the behavior of a candidate SiPM and signal amplifier for this detection array. The SiPM in question is the SensL MicroFB-30035 and the amplifier is the Broadcom AFBR-S4E001. This goal was accomplished by simulating these components in Ngspice, an electronic circuit simulator. Using this simulation method, we were able to measure the amplified signal output and produce voltage-time plots for it. We will next build this setup in the lab and compare our results to other candidate SiPMs. This research will be useful in developing other aspects of the detection array, the triggering system, and the readout system.

Analyzing the behavior of a Candidate SiPM and Signal Amplifier for MATHUSLA

The NEWS-G experiment uses a spherical proportional counter filled with gas in order to detect potential dark matter particles that can ionize the gas after a nuclear recoil. The detector works by attracting the free electrons towards the center of the sphere where there is a high voltage anode inducing a radial electric field. Near the anode, the accelerated electrons then cause a Townsend avalanche that produces many drifting ions, which creates an identifiable electrical signal. Since this method has been most efficient at energies below 1 GeV, that is where keeping the background contamination at minimum is of upmost importance. However, there is approximately 20 mBq of alpha particles coming from impurities in the copper surface of the sphere that create a sudden influx of events close to the region of interest for up to five seconds. These alphas also lead to fluctuations in the electric field, which in turn alters the time taken for electrons to reach the anode at the center. This presentation aims to show how the consequences of alpha particles in the detector can be characterized, as well as how those consequences can be used to better identify alpha events in order to remove the correlated influx of low energy events.
*On behalf of the NEWS-G collaboration

Analysis and identification of alpha events for NEWS-G

The possible existence the magnetic monopole is strongly motivated by theories and extensively tested in experiments. Searches at the LHC have been exclusively conducted with proton-proton collisions. However, the LHC not only collides protons but also heavy ions. Highly relativistic ultraperipheral collisions (UPC), where the ion-ion impact parameter exceeds the ion’s diameter, act as a strong source of electromagnetic radiation. Characterized by minimal hadronic activities, the UPC creates a clean environment to study magnetic monopoles produced via photon-fusion processes. I will present a generator-level study of this production mode, including the modelling of the photon energy spectrum and the monopole interaction required to compute the production cross section at the maximal collision energy of the LHC.

Model of magnetic monopole production in heavy-ion ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC

SNO+ is a neutrino detector located 2 km underground at the deep clean lab facility - SNOLAB, in Vale’s Creighton Mine, in Sudbury ON. The primary goal of the SNO+ experiment is to search for an extremely rare, hypothesized phenomenon, neutrino-less double beta decay (0vbb) - the discovery of which will have a multitude of major implications in fundamental physics. Given the rarity of this phenomenon, it is paramount that all backgrounds in the detector be carefully measured and understood. In this poster, I will show the importance of background analysis and detail the method used to find a rate for K40 backgrounds – a signal that is especially difficult to measure. The techniques used in this analysis allowed for the first-ever estimate of the K40 background made directly from data taken with a detector partially filled with liquid organic scintillator.

K40 Backgrounds in the SNO+ Neutrino Detector

ABSTRACT: 
SNO+ is large multipurpose detector located at SNOLAB, Canada, Sudbury filled with liquid scintillator. The scintillator will eventually be loaded with a tellurium isotope, allowing to look for neutrino-less double beta decay which is extremely rare. This will determine if the neutrino is its own antiparticle. One of the main concerns for these rare event experiments is the presence of backgrounds, which could mask the signals of interest. This presentation will focus on Rn222, one of the most common backgrounds due to its excessive prevalence in the mine environment. Radon decays into daughters where the energies lie within the region of interest for neutrino-less double beta decay. The detector is housed in a large cavity that is filled with ultrapure water and has a nitrogen cover-gas in order to avoid contamination. This presentation will focus on radon assays, a technique that was developed for the SNO experiment. Assays are performed frequently at different positions to monitor the radon levels. During a radon assay, radon is trapped with a ZnS coated lucas cell for a period of time and known amount of flow. This lucas cell can then be connected to a PMT, which detects the decayed alphas that are used to calculate the number of radon atoms in the cavity. This external technique is a crucial part of measuring and monitoring the low background for the experiment.

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Constraining contributions from Kr-85 in DEAP-3600

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