Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2017 Fall Meeting of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics
Volume 62, Number 11
Wednesday–Saturday, October 25–28, 2017; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Session JG: Mini-Symposium on Coherent Elastic Neutrino Nuclear Scattering and Dark Matter |
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Chair: Vince Cianciolo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Room: Marquis A |
Friday, October 27, 2017 10:30AM - 11:06AM |
JG.00001: Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering: the shape of things to come Invited Speaker: Juan I. Collar I will review past and present efforts to detect coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CEvNS), its importance in the context of the study of fundamental neutrino properties, and possible future technological applications. Ongoing and planned COHERENT activities at ORNL will also be discussed, with an emphasis on the experimental challenges ahead. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 27, 2017 11:06AM - 11:18AM |
JG.00002: Status of CsI[Na] at COHERENT Bjorn Scholz Sodium-doped cesium iodide is an ideal target for the study of Coherent Elastic Neutrino- Nucleus Scattering (CEvNS) at spallation sources. A 14.6-kg low-background CsI[Na] detector has been exposed to the intense neutrino flux emanating from the SNS target at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Previous to this deployment, we performed dedicated measurements of steady-state and beam-related backgrounds, as well as calibrations of CsI[Na] response to low- energy nuclear recoils like those expected from CEvNS. The results of this, the first observation of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 27, 2017 11:18AM - 11:30AM |
JG.00003: Status of the CENNS-10 Liquid Argon Detector for the COHERENT Experiment Jacob Zettlemoyer The COHERENT experiment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is designed to measure coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CEvNS), which is predicted to occur, but has yet to be observed. A variety of detectors, with different scattering nuclei, will be used to demonstrate the N$^2$ dependence of the CEvNS process. COHERENT has deployed a 14 kg CsI crystal, a 185 kg NaI crystal array, and a 28 kg LAr detector and will deploy 10 kg PPC HPGe in late 2017. The CENNS-10 LAr detector is a cylindrical single-phase scintillation-only device with two 8" photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) at the top and bottom of the detector and a tetraphenyl butadiene-coated cylinder inside the LAr volume between the PMTs as a wavelength shifter that makes up the fiducial volume. CENNS-10 recently completed a first run in May 2017 and summer 2017 activities include an upgrade to improve the light collection ability of the detector through the use of improved wavelength shifting techniques before the next run. The improvement and status of CENNS-10 will be presented along with the future of the liquid argon program for COHERENT. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 27, 2017 11:30AM - 11:42AM |
JG.00004: A 185kg NaI[Tl] Detector for Observing the Charged-Current Neutrino Interaction on $^{\mathrm{127}}$I Samuel Hedges A 185kg NaI[Tl] detector has been deployed to the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to measure the charged-current neutrino interaction cross-section on $^{\mathrm{127}}$I. Results from an initial run will be shown, and details of an upgrade to the 185kg detector will be discussed. Recent developments towards a 2-ton NaI[Tl] detector capable of simultaneously observing the charged-current interaction on $^{\mathrm{127}}$I and coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CEvNS) will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 27, 2017 11:42AM - 11:54AM |
JG.00005: The COHERENT neutrino-nucleus scattering research program at the ORNL Spallation Neutron Source Diane Markoff The objective of the COHERENT project is to unambiguously measure the Coherent Elastic Neutrino (v) Nucleus Scattering (CEvNS) on a suite of target nuclei. The coherent interaction observable involves nuclear recoil energies on the order of a few tens of keV which has eluded measurements for over 40 years. The COHERENT collaboration is applying new detector technologies with multiple targets and performing rigorous background and detector characterization studies to observe the expected cross section and the dependence on the square of the neutron number, N$^2$. The suite of targets including CsI[Na], LAr, NaI[Tl] and Ge are located at the ORNL Spallation Neutron Source which provides a high flux of pulsed neutrinos with a favorable energy distribution. Background studies include environmental neutron flux and neutron induced neutrino (NIN) rates, and characterization studies include measurements of the target material quenching factors. The CEvNS reaction rate is of interest for supernovae models, dark matter detector backgrounds, a means to study neutron distribution functions or form factors, and ultimately for neutrino physics tests of non-standard interactions and physics beyond the Standard Model. This talk will present the overall COHERENT program and detector status. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 27, 2017 11:54AM - 12:06PM |
JG.00006: Pulse Shape Discrimination in the LUX Dark Matter Experiment Dev Ashish Khaitan The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment is a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC), with an active mass of approx. 250 kg, located in the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. The experiment searches for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), a leading candidate for the dark matter content of the universe. It is expected that their interaction will be nuclear recoils (NR) and must be distinguished from background due to gamma rays and beta decays which will create electron recoil (ER) interactions. Typically, this is accomplished using the ratio of collected ionization charge to scintillation light. We present a new analysis of LUX calibration data that studies the time structure of liquid xenon scintillation in an attempt to improve ER/NR discrimination using Pulse Shape Discrimination (PSD). Using an advanced photon counting and timing algorithm, we reconstruct the detection time of photons and optimize a prompt fraction discriminator to distinguish between ER and NR interactions. We quantify how this discriminator performs and demonstrate how it can be used, in conjunction with the charge-to-light ratio, to improve the overall discrimination in LUX. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, October 27, 2017 12:06PM - 12:18PM |
JG.00007: The MiniBooNE-DM Search for Sub-GeV Dark Matter Robert Cooper There is overwhelming evidence that gravitationally interacting dark matter exists, but its identity and microscopic properties remain a mystery. Current direct detection experiments have not made a definitive claim, and this motivates searching for dark matter outside the direct search region of interest. In particular, direct detection experiments lack sensitivity at low mass because of their detection thresholds. On the other hand, low-mass dark matter could be produced and boosted to high energies by accelerators. Neutrino detectors have the requisite sensitivity to identify possible dark matter interactions in-time with the beam pulse and can reject other backgrounds. The MiniBooNE-DM collaboration recently completed a low-mass dark matter search at the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beamline. By steering the 8 GeV proton beam off-target into the steel beamstop, the MiniBooNE detector sees a significant reduction of neutrino backgrounds. This talk will show results from the first low-mass dark matter search in the nucleon quasi-elastic scattering channel. Future analysis channels and prospects will also be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
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