686 research outputs found
Calibration of liquid argon and neon detectors with
We report results from tests of Kr, as a calibration
source in liquid argon and liquid neon. Kr atoms are
produced in the decay of Rb, and a clear Kr
scintillation peak at 41.5 keV appears in both liquids when filling our
detector through a piece of zeolite coated with Rb. Based on this
scintillation peak, we observe 6.0 photoelectrons/keV in liquid argon with a
resolution of 6% (/E) and 3.0 photoelectrons/keV in liquid neon with a
resolution of 19% (/E). The observed peak intensity subsequently decays
with the Kr half-life after stopping the fill, and we
find evidence that the spatial location of Kr atoms in
the chamber can be resolved. Kr will be a useful
calibration source for liquid argon and neon dark matter and solar neutrino
detectors.Comment: 7 pages, 12 figure
THE EFFECTS OF 2.0-Bev PROTONS IN MICE
The biological effects of proton beams of 2.0 to 2.2 Bev were studied in mice. Physical studies of particle distribution and depth dosimetry are described. Data are presented on lethal dosage measurements and studies of light element activation in tissues through proton reactions (p,pn) as determined by whole-body counting of gamma activity. (C.H.
Hybrid simulations of lateral diffusion in fluctuating membranes
In this paper we introduce a novel method to simulate lateral diffusion of
inclusions in a fluctuating membrane. The regarded systems are governed by two
dynamic processes: the height fluctuations of the membrane and the diffusion of
the inclusion along the membrane. While membrane fluctuations can be expressed
in terms of a dynamic equation which follows from the Helfrich Hamiltonian, the
dynamics of the diffusing particle is described by a Langevin or Smoluchowski
equation. In the latter equations, the curvature of the surface needs to be
accounted for, which makes particle diffusion a function of membrane
fluctuations. In our scheme these coupled dynamic equations, the membrane
equation and the Langevin equation for the particle, are numerically integrated
to simulate diffusion in a membrane. The simulations are used to study the
ratio of the diffusion coefficient projected on a flat plane and the
intramembrane diffusion coefficient for the case of free diffusion. We compare
our results with recent analytical results that employ a preaveraging
approximation and analyze the validity of this approximation. A detailed
simulation study of the relevant correlation functions reveals a surprisingly
large range where the approximation is applicable.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
First measurement of discrimination between helium and electron recoils in liquid xenon for low-mass dark matter searches
We report the first measurement of discrimination between low-energy helium
recoils and electron recoils in liquid xenon. This result is relevant to
proposed low-mass dark matter searches which seek to dissolve light target
nuclei in the active volume of liquid-xenon time projection chambers.
Low-energy helium recoils were produced by degrading particles from
Po with a gold foil situated on the cathode of a liquid xenon
time-projection chamber. The resulting population of helium recoil events is
well separated from electron recoils and is also offset from the expected
position of xenon nuclear recoil events.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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
Direct WIMP identification: Physics performance of a segmented noble-liquid target immersed in a Gd-doped water veto
We evaluate background rejection capabilities and physics performance of a
detector composed of two diverse elements: a sensitive target (filled with one
or two species of liquefied noble gasses) and an active veto (made of Gd-doped
ultra-pure water). A GEANT4 simulation shows that for a direct WIMP search,
this device can reduce the neutron background to O(1) event per year per tonne
of material. Our calculation shows that an exposure of one tonne year
will suffice to exclude spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross sections ranging
from pb to pb.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. Version accepted for publication in JCA
Curvature-coupling dependence of membrane protein diffusion coefficients
We consider the lateral diffusion of a protein interacting with the curvature
of the membrane. The interaction energy is minimized if the particle is at a
membrane position with a certain curvature that agrees with the spontaneous
curvature of the particle. We employ stochastic simulations that take into
account both the thermal fluctuations of the membrane and the diffusive
behavior of the particle. In this study we neglect the influence of the
particle on the membrane dynamics, thus the membrane dynamics agrees with that
of a freely fluctuating membrane. Overall, we find that this curvature-coupling
substantially enhances the diffusion coefficient. We compare the ratio of the
projected or measured diffusion coefficient and the free intramembrane
diffusion coefficient, which is a parameter of the simulations, with analytical
results that rely on several approximations. We find that the simulations
always lead to a somewhat smaller diffusion coefficient than our analytical
approach. A detailed study of the correlations of the forces acting on the
particle indicates that the diffusing inclusion tries to follow favorable
positions on the membrane, such that forces along the trajectory are on average
smaller than they would be for random particle positions.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
Measurement of Scintillation and Ionization Yield and Scintillation Pulse Shape from Nuclear Recoils in Liquid Argon
We have measured the scintillation and ionization yield of recoiling nuclei
in liquid argon as a function of applied electric field by exposing a
dual-phase liquid argon time projection chamber (LAr-TPC) to a low energy
pulsed narrow band neutron beam produced at the Notre Dame Institute for
Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics. Liquid scintillation counters were arranged
to detect and identify neutrons scattered in the TPC and to select the energy
of the recoiling nuclei. We report measurements of the scintillation yields for
nuclear recoils with energies from 10.3 to 57.3 keV and for median applied
electric fields from 0 to 970 V/cm. For the ionization yields, we report
measurements from 16.9 to 57.3 keV and for electric fields from 96.4 to 486
V/cm. We also report the observation of an anticorrelation between
scintillation and ionization from nuclear recoils, which is similar to the
anticorrelation between scintillation and ionization from electron recoils.
Assuming that the energy loss partitions into excitons and ion pairs from
Kr internal conversion electrons is comparable to that from Bi
conversion electrons, we obtained the numbers of excitons () and ion
pairs () and their ratio () produced by nuclear recoils from
16.9 to 57.3 keV. Motivated by arguments suggesting direction sensitivity in
LAr-TPC signals due to columnar recombination, a comparison of the light and
charge yield of recoils parallel and perpendicular to the applied electric
field is presented for the first time.Comment: v2 to reflect published versio
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