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Results for “Bolometers for dark matter research”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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DOE OSTI2020

Lowering the Energy Threshold of the CUORE Experiment: Benefits in the Surface Alpha Events Reconstruction

CUORE is a tonne-scale cryogenic experiment located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso that exploits bolometric technique to search for neutrinoless double beta decay of 130 Te. Thanks to its very low background and large mass, CUORE is also a powerful tool to study a broad class of phenomena, such as solar axions and WIMP scattering. The ability to conduct such sensitive searches crucially depends on the energy threshold, which has to be kept as low as possible. Here, we show how the trigger algorithm affects the sensitivity to low-energy phenomena and the interpretation of the energy spectrum. In particular, we focus on the impact that the trigger algorithm has on the identification of the coincidence events among different crystals and, consequently, on the reconstruction of the background.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Muon track reconstruction in a segmented bolometric array using multi-objective optimization

Recent advances in segmented solid-state detector arrays for rare-event searches have allowed the technology to approach the ton-scale in detector mass and the scale of meters in size. Often focused around searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay or direct dark matter detection, such experiments also have the capability to search for exotic particles that leave track-like signatures across their volume. However, the segmented nature of such detector arrays often sets the spatial resolution and makes the problem of reconstructing track-like paths non-trivial. Here, in this paper, we present an algorithm that improves reconstruction of track-like events in segmented detectors using multi-objective optimization — a computational technique that optimizes more than one cost function at a time without specifying a quantitative weighting between them. Such a technique allows the reconstruction of tracks through a detector and the determination of path-lengths through individual elements. When combined with the reconstructed energy depositions in each element this allows for a calculation of the stopping power of track-like particles and opens the door to searches for particles with abnormal stopping power like monopoles or lightly-ionizing particles (LIPs). Results are presented which evaluate the precision of the reconstruction tools as they currently stand against Monte Carlo generated data. The algorithm is presented in the context of the CUORE experiment, but has applications to other segmented calorimeter detectors.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2023

Quantum Devices for Neutrino and Rare Particle Detection (Final Report)

This report summarizes the technical work completed under the DOE-QuanISED program. This grant allowed the MIT group --and associated groups on the project, including UMass Amherst and Argonne National Laboratory -- to explore the use of superconducting bolometers for the purpose of neutrino and low mass dark matter detection. These low threshold bolometric detection techniques have wide applicability in nuclear and particle physics, including searching for low mass weakly-interacting dark matter; detecting neutrinos via coherent neutrino scattering; searching for axions and nuclear non-proliferation. In addition, we explored how using techniques readily used by the quantum computing community–such as multiplexed microwave resonators and quantum amplifiers—could be used as a low noise readout scheme for an array of superconducting detectors. We briefly summarized the accomplishments under the project, and what future research directions have spawned from this research.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2025

Low energy backgrounds and excess noise in a two-channel low-threshold calorimeter

Here, we describe observations of low energy excess (LEE) events, background events observed in all light dark matter direct detection calorimeters, and noise in a transition edge sensor based two-channel silicon athermal phonon detector with 375 meV baseline energy resolution. We measure two distinct LEE populations: “shared” multichannel events with a pulse shape consistent with substrate athermal phonon events and sub-eV events that couple nearly exclusively to a single channel with a significantly faster pulse shape. These “singles” are consistent with events occurring within the aluminum athermal phonon collection fins. Similarly, our measured detector noise is higher than the theoretical expectation. Measured noise can be split into an uncorrelated component, consistent with shot noise from small energy depositions within the athermal phonon sensor itself, and a correlated component, consistent with shot noise from energy depositions within the silicon substrate's phonon system.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2026

Enhanced sensitivity to trace 238 U impurity of sapphire via coincidence neutron activation analysis

Sapphire has mechanical and electrical properties that are advantageous for the construction of internal components of radiation detectors such as time projection chambers and bolometers. However, it has proved difficult to assess its 232 Th and 238 U content down to the picogram per gram level. Here, this work reports an experimental verification of a computational study that demonstrates 𝛾⁢𝛾 coincidence counting, coupled with neutron activation analysis (NAA), can reach ppt sensitivities. Combining results from 𝛾⁢𝛾 coincidence counting with those of earlier single-𝛾 counting based NAA shows that a sample of Saint Gobain sapphire has 232 Th and 238 U concentrations of <0.26 ppt and <2.3 ppt, respectively; the best constraints on the radiopurity of sapphire.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗