Snowmass 2021 Scintillating Bubble Chambers: Liquid-noble Bubble Chambers for Dark Matter and CE$ν$NS Detection

Abstract

The Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) Collaboration is developing liquid-noble bubble chambers for the quasi-background-free detection of low-mass (GeV-scale) dark matter and coherent scattering (CEνNS) of low-energy (MeV-scale) neutrinos. The first physics-scale demonstrator of this technique, a 10-kg liquid argon bubble chamber dubbed SBC-LAr10, is now being commissioned at Fermilab. This device will calibrate the background discrimination power and sensitivity of superheated argon to nuclear recoils at energies down to 100 eV. A second functionally-identical detector with a focus on radiopure construction is being built for SBC's first dark matter search at SNOLAB. The projected spin-independent sensitivity of this search is approximately 10 −43 cm 2 at 1 GeV/c 2 dark matter particle mass. The scalability and background discrimination power of the liquid-noble bubble chamber make this technique a compelling candidate for future dark matter searches to the solar neutrino fog at 1 GeV/c 2 particle mass (requiring a ∼ton-year exposure with non-neutrino backgrounds sub-dominant to the solar CEνNS signal) and for high-statistics CEνNS studies at nuclear reactors.

Bubble Chambers for Dark Matter Detection

“…The COUPP collaboration used CF 3 I [10] as a target material with the intent of exploring both spin-dependent and spin-independent dark matter (exploiting the large spin-independent cross section from the iodine due to the large A 2 and the spin-dependence from the fluorine). Other examples, such as the PICASSO detector, focused on the spin-dependent coupling with the proton using the large cross section on 19 F and employing C 3 F 8 and C 4 F 10 as targets. The SIMPLE collaboration followed a similar strategy using C 2 ClF 5 in order to incorporate the large spin-dependent enhancement due to the odd number of protons in the fluorine.…”

“…As PICO-60 is one of the only experiments using a target nucleus having excess proton spin (as opposed to excess neutron spin), it provides the most sensitive and robust search for this signal. The projections for the sensitivity of the SBC detectors to spin-independent GeV-scale dark matter, along with projections and limits for other experiments, are shown in Figure 6 taken from [19].…”

Snowmass Neutrino Frontier Report

“…This technological breakthrough triggered R&D activities worldwide of low-threshold neutrino detectors based on a wide range of technologies (e.g. [69,[132][133][134]). A broad and complementary CEvNS program based on small-scale experimental projects will enable precision measurements and pave the way for applications.…”

SBC-SNOLAB scintillation system and SiPM implementation for dark matter searches

“…For more information about other aspects of the chamber and physics goals not covered in these proceedings see refs. [4,5].…”