Suitability of superheated droplet detectors for dark matter search

Boukhira, N.; Boussaroque, I.; Gornea, R.; Marco, M. Di; Lessard, L.; Pagé, Véronique; Vinet, Johanne; Zacek, V.

doi:10.1016/s0927-6505(00)00123-7

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…This SIMPLE gel is a food gel and its manipulation is easy and safe. In fact, the manipulation of chemical gels, like acrylamide, needs specific precautions and its purification remains a major problem [2] for dark matter use; food products can in contrast be manipulated very easily.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is one of only two such experiments [1,2] based on superheated droplet detectors (SDDs), which consist of a homogeneous dispersion of superheated liquid refrigerant droplets suspended in a polymer or gel matrix of matched density to prevent sedimentation during the fabrication process when the gel is sol. The response of the device is based on the Seitz ''thermal spike'' model [3]: if the energy deposition is sufficiently large within a sufficiently short distance within the metastable droplet, the droplet vaporizes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of additives towards increasing the SIMPLE SDD lifetime

Morlat

Limagne

Waysand

et al. 2006

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of additives towards increasing the SIMPLE SDD lifetime

Morlat

Limagne

Waysand

et al. 2006

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A:

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“…In reality, there is some evidence that these are smoothed as sigmoids (Boukhira et al, 2000;Barnabé-Heider et al, 2005). However, the onsets of sensitivity are steep enough that strictly following the theory works well to predict real-life data (Bond et al, 2005;Bolte et al, 2005).…”

Section: Energy Threshold Calculationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, SDDs (Superheated Droplet Detectors) like those used by the PICASSO collaboration have relied on piezos for triggering (Boukhira et al, 2000;Barnabé-Heider et al, 2005). SDDs use droplets of superheated liquid dispersed in a passive gel which essentially act like miniature bubble chambers, of order 10-100 microns in size (Collar, 1996).…”

Section: Audio Triggermentioning

confidence: 99%

Dark matter limits froma 15 kg windowless bubble chamber

Szydagis

2011

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The COUPP collaboration has successfully used bubble chambers, a technology previously applied only to high-energy physics experiments, as direct dark matter detectors. It has produced the world's most stringent spin-dependent WIMP limits, and increasingly competitive spin-independent limits. These limits were achieved by capitalizing on an intrinsic rejection of the gamma background that all other direct detection experiments must address through high-density shielding and empirically-determined data cuts. The history of COUPP, including its earliest prototypes and latest results, is briefly discussed in this thesis. The feasibility of a new, windowless bubble chamber concept simpler and more inexpensive in design is discussed here as well. The dark matter limits achieved with a 15 kg windowless chamber, larger than any previous COUPP chamber (2 kg, 4 kg), are presented.Evidence of the greater radiopurity of synthetic quartz compared to natural is presented using the data from this 15 kg device, the first chamber to be made from synthetic quartz.The effective reconstruction of the three-dimensional positions of bubbles in a highly distorted optical field, with ninety-degree bottom lighting similar to cloud chamber lighting, is demonstrated. Another innovation described in this thesis is the use of the sound produced by bubbles recorded by an array of piezoelectric sensors as the primary means of bubble detection. In other COUPP chambers, cameras have been used as the primary trigger. Previous work on bubble acoustic signature differentiation using piezos is built upon in order to further demonstrate the ability to discriminate between alpha-and neutron-induced events. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSAbove all, this thesis could not have been possible without my wife Kel, who not only ensured that it was comprehensible and not riddled with mistakes, but also put up with my moodiness as I edited from draft to draft. My parents also encouraged me to persist in the face of what felt at the time to be unsurmountable difficulties.I am so grateful to my thesis advisor, Juan Collar, who never expected anything less than the best, and therefore encouraged me to make my best even better. His ability to juggle multiple tasks, even different experiments and collaborations, was a never-ending source of inspiration as I myself strove to juggle the many independent aspects of the experiment described in this thesis.Fellow graduate student and friend Phil Barbeau took time out of his own experiment to help me with physics questions when I first started working with Juan, and his advice as one who had "been there, done that" was incredibly useful as I framed this thesis. Postdoc Eric Dahl has also patiently answered my many questions. Eric was a huge help in formulating the acoustic analysis and muon veto coincidence, as well as explaining the calculation of dark matter limits. I could not have gotten everything together into a functioning dark matter experiment if it were not for a long chain of Collar lab students, Chicago student...

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“…[3,4,10,13], while those for the remaining experiments are calculated on the basis of Refs. [13,12,[14][15][16][17]. (Table II) makes the experiment an essentially spin-independent WIMP search.…”

Section: The Basic Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model-independent limits from spin-dependent WIMP dark matter experiments

Giuliani¹,

Girard

2005

Phys. Rev. D

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Spin-dependent WIMP searches have traditionally presented results within an odd group approximation and by suppressing one of the spin-dependent interaction cross sections. We here elaborate on a modelindependent analysis in which spin-dependent interactions with both protons and neutrons are simultaneously considered. Within this approach, equivalent current limits on the WIMP-nucleon interaction at WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c 2 are either p 0.7 pb, n 0.2 pb or |a p | 0.4, |a n | 0.7 depending on the choice of cross section or coupling strength representation. These limits become less restrictive for either larger or smaller masses; they are less restrictive than those from the traditional odd group approximation regardless of WIMP mass. Combination of experimental results are seen to produce significantly more restrictive limits than those obtained from any single experiment. Experiments traditionally considered spin-independent are moreover found to severely limit the spin-dependent phase space. The extension of this analysis to the case of positive signal experiments is explored. PACS numbers: 95.35.+d;14.80.Ly;

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Suitability of superheated droplet detectors for dark matter search

Cited by 31 publications

References 10 publications

The role of additives towards increasing the SIMPLE SDD lifetime

The role of additives towards increasing the SIMPLE SDD lifetime

Dark matter limits froma 15 kg windowless bubble chamber

Model-independent limits from spin-dependent WIMP dark matter experiments

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