3 research outputs found
Skipper-CCD Sensors for the Oscura Experiment: Requirements and Preliminary Tests
Oscura is a proposed multi-kg skipper-CCD experiment designed for a dark
matter (DM) direct detection search that will reach unprecedented sensitivity
to sub-GeV DM-electron interactions with its 10 kg detector array. Oscura is
planning to operate at SNOLAB with 2070 m overburden, and aims to reach a
background goal of less than one event in each electron bin in the 2-10
electron ionization-signal region for the full 30 kg-year exposure, with a
radiation background rate of 0.01 dru. In order to achieve this goal, Oscura
must address each potential source of background events, including instrumental
backgrounds. In this work, we discuss the main instrumental background sources
and the strategy to control them, establishing a set of constraints on the
sensors' performance parameters. We present results from the tests of the first
fabricated Oscura prototype sensors, evaluate their performance in the context
of the established constraints and estimate the Oscura instrumental background
based on these results
Early Science with the Oscura Integration Test
Oscura is a planned light-dark matter search experiment using Skipper-CCDs
with a total active mass of 10 kg. As part of the detector development, the
collaboration plans to build the Oscura Integration Test (OIT), an engineering
test experiment with 10% of the Oscura's total mass. Here we discuss the early
science opportunities with the OIT to search for millicharged particles (mCPs)
using the NuMI beam at Fermilab. mCPs would be produced at low energies through
photon-mediated processes from decays of scalar, pseudoscalar, and vector
mesons, or direct Drell-Yan productions. Estimates show that the OIT would be a
world-leading probe for low-mass mCPs.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figure
Searching for millicharged particles with 1 kg of Skipper-CCDs using the NuMI beam at Fermilab
Abstract Oscura is a planned light-dark matter search experiment using Skipper-CCDs with a total active mass of 10 kg. As part of the detector development, the collaboration plans to build the Oscura Integration Test (OIT), an engineering test with 10% of the total mass. Here we discuss the early science opportunities with the OIT to search for millicharged particles (mCPs) using the NuMI beam at Fermilab. mCPs would be produced at low energies through photon-mediated processes from decays of scalar, pseudoscalar, and vector mesons, or direct Drell-Yan productions. Estimates show that the OIT would be a world-leading probe for mCPs in the ∼MeV mass range