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Chiu, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Chiu, M..

At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

nEXO: neutrinoless double beta decay search beyond 10 28 year half-life sensitivity

The nEXO neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay experiment is designed to use a time projection chamber and 5000 kg of isotopically enriched liquid xenon to search for the decay in 136 Xe. Progress in the detector design, paired with higher fidelity in its simulation and an advanced data analysis, based on the one used for the final results of EXO-200, produce a sensitivity prediction that exceeds the half-life of 10 28 years. Specifically, improvements have been made in the understanding of production of scintillation photons and charge as well as of their transport and reconstruction in the detector. The more detailed knowledge of the detector construction has been paired with more assays for trace radioactivity in different materials. In particular, the use of custom electroformed copper is now incorporated in the design, leading to a substantial reduction in backgrounds from the intrinsic radioactivity of detector materials. Furthermore, a number of assumptions from previous sensitivity projections have gained further support from interim work validating the nEXO experiment concept. Together these improvements and updates suggest that the nEXO experiment will reach a half-life sensitivity of 1.35 × 10 28 yr at 90% confidence level in 10 years of data taking, covering the parameter space associated with the inverted neutrino mass ordering, along with a significant portion of the parameter space for the normal ordering scenario, for almost all nuclear matrix elements. Furthermore, the effects of backgrounds deviating from the nominal values used for the projections are also illustrated, concluding that the nEXO design is robust against a number of imperfections of the model.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Reflectivity of VUV-sensitive silicon photomultipliers in liquid Xenon

Silicon photomultipliers are regarded as a very promising technology for next-generation, cutting-edge detectors for low-background experiments in particle physics. This work presents systematic reflectivity studies of Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM) and other samples in liquid xenon at vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) wavelengths. A dedicated setup at the University of Münster has been used that allows to acquire angle-resolved reflection measurements of various samples immersed in liquid xenon with 0.45° angular resolution. Four samples are investigated in this work: one Hamamatsu VUV4 SiPM, one FBK VUV-HD SiPM, one FBK wafer sample and one Large-Area Avalanche Photodiode (LA-APD) from EXO-200. Here, the reflectivity is determined to be 25–36 % at an angle of incidence of 20° for the four samples and increases to up to 65 % at 70° for the LA-APD and the FBK samples. The Hamamatsu VUV4 SiPM shows a decline with increasing angle of incidence. The reflectivity results will be incorporated in upcoming light response simulations of the nEXO detector.

(pin diodes, APDs, SiPMs, G-APDs, CCDs, EBCCDs, EM↗
DOE OSTI2021

Event reconstruction in a liquid xenon Time Projection Chamber with an optically-open field cage

nEXO is a proposed tonne-scale neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) experiment using liquid 136 Xe (LXe) in a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) to read out ionization and scintillation signals. Between the field cage and the LXe vessel, a layer of LXe (“skin” LXe) is present, where no ionization signal is collected. Only scintillation photons are detected, owing to the lack of optical barrier around the field cage. Here, in this work, we show that the light originating in the skin LXe region can be used to improve background discrimination by 5% over previous published estimates. This improvement comes from two elements. First, a fraction of the γ-ray background is removed by identifying light from interactions with an energy deposition in the skin LXe. Then, background from 222 Rn dissolved in the skin LXe can be efficiently rejected by tagging the α decay in the 214 Bi- 214 Po chain in the skin LXe.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2020

Production of $π^0$ and $\eta$ mesons in $\mathrm{U+U}$ collisions at $\sqrt {s_{NN}} = 192$ $\mathrm {GeV}$

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider measured $π^0$ and $\eta$ mesons at midrapidity in $\mathrm{U+U}$ collisions at $\sqrt {s_{NN}} = 192$ $\mathrm {GeV}$ in a wide transverse momentum range. Measurements were performed in the $π^0(η) → γγ$ decay modes. A strong suppression of $π^0$ and $\eta$ meson production at high transverse momentum was observed in central $\mathrm{U+U}$ collisions relative to binary scaled p + p results. Yields of $π^0$ and $\eta$ mesons measured in $\mathrm{U+U}$ collisions show similar suppression pattern to those measured in Au + Au collisions at $\sqrt {s_{NN}} = 200$ $\mathrm {GeV}$ for similar numbers of participant nucleons. The $η/π^0$ ratios do not show dependence on centrality or transverse momentum and are consistent with previously measured values in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus, nucleus-nucleus, and $e^+e^-$ collisions.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Production of b b ¯ at forward rapidity in p + p collisions at s = 510 GeV

The cross section of bottom quark-antiquark ( b b ¯ ) production in p + p collisions at s = 510 GeV is measured with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The results are based on the yield of high mass, like-sign muon pairs measured within the PHENIX muon arm acceptance ( 1.2 < | y | < 2.2 ). The b b ¯ signal is extracted from like-sign dimuons by utilizing the unique properties of neutral B meson oscillation. We report a differential cross section of d σ b b ¯ → μ ± μ ± / d y = 0.16 ± 0.01 ( stat ) ± 0.02 ( syst ) ± 0.02 ( global ) nb for like-sign muons in the rapidity and p T ranges 1.2 < | y | < 2.2 and p T > 1 GeV / c , and dimuon mass of 5 – 10 GeV / c 2 . The extrapolated total cross section at this energy for b b ¯ production is 13.1 ± 0.6 ( stat ) ± 1.5 ( syst ) ± 2.7 ( global ) μ b . The total cross section is compared to a perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculation and is consistent within uncertainties. The azimuthal opening angle between muon pairs from b b ¯ decays and their p T distributions are compared to distributions generated using ps pythia 6, which includes next-to-leading order processes. The azimuthal correlations and pair p T distribution are not very well described by pythia calculations, but are still consistent within uncertainties. Flavor creation and flavor excitation subprocesses are favored over gluon splitting.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reflectance of Silicon Photomultipliers at Vacuum Ultraviolet Wavelengths

Characterization of the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) reflectance of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) is important for large-scale SiPM-based photodetector systems. In this work, we report the angular dependence of the specular reflectance in vacuum of SiPMs manufactured by Fondazionc Bruno Kessler (FBK) and Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) over wavelengths ranging from 120 to 280 nm. Refractive index and extinction coefficient of the thin silicon-dioxide film deposited on the surface of the FBK SiPMs are derived from reflectance data of an FBK silicon wafer with the same deposited oxide film as SiPMs. The diffuse reflectance of SiPMs is also measured at 193 nm. We use the VUV spectral dependence of the optical constants to predict the reflectance of the FBK silicon wafer and FBK SiPMs in liquid xenon.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Measurements of electron transport in liquid and gas Xenon using a laser-driven photocathode

Measurements of electron drift properties in liquid and gaseous xenon are reported. The electrons are generated by the photoelectric effect in a semitransparent gold photocathode driven in transmission mode with a pulsed ultraviolet laser. The charges drift and diffuse in a small chamber at various electric fields and a fixed drift distance of 2.0 cm. At an electric field of 0.5 kV/cm, the measured drift velocities and corresponding temperature coefficients respectively are 1.97 ± 0.04 mm/µs and (-0.69 ± 0.05)%/K for liquid xenon, and 1.42 ± 0.03 mm/µs and (+0.11 ± 0.01)%/K for gaseous xenon at 1.5 bar. In addition, we measure longitudinal diffusion coefficients of 25.7±4.6 cm2/s and 149±23 cm2/s, for liquid and gas, respectively. The quantum efficiency of the gold photocathode is studied at the photon energy of 4.73 eV in liquid and gaseous xenon, and vacuum. These charge transport properties and the behavior of photocathodes in a xenon environment are important in designing and calibrating future large scale noble liquid detectors.

Njoya, Oumarou↗
DOE OSTI2020

Fermilab Test Beam Facility Annual Report: FY19

This Technical Memorandum (TM) summarizes the Fermilab Test Beam Faciltiy (FTBF) operations for FY2019. It is one of a series of annual publications intended to gather information in one place. This TM discusses the experiments performed at the Test Beam from November 2018 to July 2019. The experiments are listed in Table 1. Each experiment wrote a summary that was edited for clarity and is included in this report.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗