9 research outputs found
Digging for Dark Matter: Spectral Analysis and Discovery Potential of Paleo-Detectors
Paleo-detectors are a recently proposed method for the direct detection of
Dark Matter (DM). In such detectors, one would search for the persistent damage
features left by DM--nucleus interactions in ancient minerals. Initial
sensitivity projections have shown that paleo-detectors could probe much of the
remaining Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) parameter space. In this
paper, we improve upon the cut-and-count approach previously used to estimate
the sensitivity by performing a full spectral analysis of the background- and
DM-induced signal spectra. We consider two scenarios for the systematic errors
on the background spectra: i) systematic errors on the normalization only, and
ii) systematic errors on the shape of the backgrounds. We find that the
projected sensitivity is rather robust to imperfect knowledge of the
backgrounds. Finally, we study how well the parameters of the true WIMP model
could be reconstructed in the hypothetical case of a WIMP discovery.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, code available at
https://github.com/tedwards2412/paleo_detectors/ . v2: Added additional
analysis theory details, matches version published in PR
Paleo-Detectors for Galactic Supernova Neutrinos
Paleo-detectors are a proposed experimental technique in which one would
search for traces of recoiling nuclei in ancient minerals. Natural minerals on
Earth are as old as Gyr and, in many minerals, the damage
tracks left by recoiling nuclei are also preserved for timescales long compared
to 1 Gyr once created. Thus, even reading out relatively small target samples
of order 100 g, paleo-detectors would allow one to search for very rare events
thanks to the large exposure, . Here, we explore the potential of paleo-detectors to
measure nuclear recoils induced by neutrinos from galactic core collapse
supernovae. We find that they would not only allow for a direct measurement of
the average core collapse supernova rate in the Milky Way, but would also
contain information about the time-dependence of the local supernova rate over
the past 1 Gyr. Since the supernova rate is thought to be directly
proportional to the star formation rate, such a measurement would provide a
determination of the local star formation history. We investigate the
sensitivity of paleo-detectors to both a smooth time evolution and an
enhancement of the core collapse supernova rate on relatively short timescales,
as would be expected for a starburst period in the local group.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures. code available at
https://github.com/tedwards2412/SN-paleology (archived at
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3066206 ) v2: matches the published versio
A Novel Method for Detection of Glycoproteins on Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate Polyacrylamide Gel Using Radio-Iodinated Tyrosine.
High-sensitivity blood-based detection of breast cancer by multi photon detection diagnostic proteomics
We have developed several new methods for blood-based cancer detection by diagnostic proteomics. Ultrasensitive methods of immunoassay using multiphoton-detection (IA/MPD) increase sensitivity by 200- to 1000-fold (1 femtogram/mL). This has allowed the measurement of cancer biomarkers with very low concentrations in blood that could not be measured for full patient cohorts with conventional immunoassays. Sensitivity and specificity in cancer detection have been found to be potentiated by use of immunoassay panels which include tissue-specific cancer biomarkers as well as cytokines and angiogenic factors. The ultrasensitive immunoassays revealed that patient to patient variations in the concentrations of individual biomarkers in blood can extend over many orders of magnitude (up to six) and that the distributions of biomarker concentrations over patient cohorts are non-Gaussian. New methods of data analysis which correlate abundances of multiple, different biomarkers have been developed to deal with such data sets. Sensitivity and specificity of about 95% have been achieved for blood-based detection of breast cancer in pilot studies on 250 patients and 95 controls. Pilot studies indicate that this methodology may also allow differentiation of malignant breast cancer from benign lesions and can provide similar sensitivity and specificity for other epithelial cancers such as prostate cancer, ovarian cancer and melanoma. The methods developed for selection, application, and evaluation of very high sensitivity biomarker panels are expected to have general relevance for diagnostic proteomics. <br/