242 research outputs found
On the Mechanism of Townsend Avalanche for Negative Molecular Ions
Time projection chambers drifting negative ions (NITPC) instead of electrons
have several advantages. A NITPC can operate at very high reduced drift fields
without diffusion runaway, and the readout digitization sampling rate
requirement is considerably relaxed due to the low drift speed of negative
ions. The initiation of Townsend avalanches to allow gas gain in these devices
has not been understood until now. It is shown here that the avalanche in low
pressure CS vapor is most likely initiated by collisional detachment of the
electron from the negative molecular ion. In mixtures of Nitromethane vapor
with CO the mechanism appears to be more complex
A benign, low Z electron capture agent for negative ion TPCs
We have identified nitromethane (CHNO) as an effective electron
capture agent for negative ion TPCs (NITPCs).
We present drift velocity and longitudinal diffusion measurements for
negative ion gas mixtures using nitromethane as the capture agent.
Not only is nitromethane substantially more benign than the only other
identified capture agent, CS, but its low atomic number will enable the use
of the NITPC as a photoelectric X{}-ray polarimeter in the 1{}-10 keV band
Low Pressure Negative Ion Drift Chamber for Dark Matter Search
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are an attractive candidate for
the dark matter thought to make up the bulk of the mass of our universe. We
explore here the possibility of using a low pressure negative ion drift chamber
to search for WIMPs. The innovation of drifting ions, instead of electrons,
allows the design of a detector with exceptional sensitivity to, background
rejection from, and signature of WIMPs.Comment: 5 pages submitted to PR
The DRIFT Project: Searching for WIMPS with a Directional Detector
A low pressure time projection chamber for the detection of WIMPs is
discussed. Discrimination against Compton electron background in such a device
should be very good, and directional information about the recoil atoms would
be obtainable. If a full 3-D reconstruction of the recoil tracks can be
achieved, Monte Carlo studies indicate that a WIMP signal could be identified
with high confidence from as few as 30 detected WIMP-nucleus scattering events.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Presented at Dark 98, Heidelberg, July 1998, and
to appear in conference proceeding
Energy Deposition of Energetic Silicon Atoms Within a Silicon Lattice
The energy dependence of the ionization produced in silicon by recoiling silicon atoms was measured in the 4–54-keV energy interval. It is found that the fraction of the recoil energy that is dissipated as ionization follows an E1/2 dependence which agrees well with the predictions of the theory of Lindhard et al. [Mat. Fys. Medd. 33, 10 (1963)]
A Study of the Residual 39Ar Content in Argon from Underground Sources
The discovery of argon from underground sources with significantly less 39Ar
than atmospheric argon was an important step in the development of
direct-detection dark matter experiments using argon as the active target. We
report on the design and operation of a low background detector with a single
phase liquid argon target that was built to study the 39Ar content of the
underground argon. Underground argon from the Kinder Morgan CO2 plant in
Cortez, Colorado was determined to have less than 0.65% of the 39Ar activity in
atmospheric argon.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure
Gaseous Dark Matter Detectors
Dark Matter detectors with directional sensitivity have the potential of
yielding an unambiguous positive observation of WIMPs as well as discriminating
between galactic Dark Matter halo models. In this article, we introduce the
motivation for directional detectors, discuss the experimental techniques that
make directional detection possible, and review the status of the experimental
effort in this field.Comment: 19 pages, review on gaseous directional dark matter detectors
submitted to New Journal of Physic
Muon Catalyzed Fusion in 3 K Solid Deuterium
Muon catalyzed fusion in deuterium has traditionally been studied in gaseous
and liquid targets. The TRIUMF solid-hydrogen-layer target system has been used
to study the fusion reaction rates in the solid phase of D_2 at a target
temperature of 3 K. Products of two distinct branches of the reaction were
observed; neutrons by a liquid organic scintillator, and protons by a silicon
detector located inside the target system. The effective molecular formation
rate from the upper hyperfine state of and the hyperfine transition
rate have been measured: , and .
The molecular formation rate is consistent with other recent measurements, but
not with the theory for isolated molecules. The discrepancy may be due to
incomplete thermalization, an effect which was investigated by Monte Carlo
calculations. Information on branching ratio parameters for the s and p wave
d+d nuclear interaction has been extracted.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PRA Feb 20, 199
Observation of the Dependence of Scintillation from Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Argon on Drift Field
We have exposed a dual-phase Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr-TPC)
to a low energy pulsed narrowband neutron beam, produced at the Notre Dame
Institute for Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics to study the scintillation
light yield of recoiling nuclei in a LAr-TPC. A liquid scintillation counter
was arranged to detect and identify neutrons scattered in the LAr-TPC target
and to select the energy of the recoiling nuclei.
We report the observation of a significant dependence on drift field of
liquid argon scintillation from nuclear recoils of 11 keV. This observation is
important because, to date, estimates of the sensitivity of noble liquid TPC
dark matter searches are based on the assumption that electric field has only a
small effect on the light yield from nuclear recoils.Comment: v3 updated to reflect published version, including a set of plots for
49.9 keV dat
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