Improving Photoelectron Counting and Particle Identification in Scintillation Detectors with Bayesian Techniques
arXiv:1408.1914 · doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2014.12.006
Abstract
Many current and future dark matter and neutrino detectors are designed to measure scintillation light with a large array of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The energy resolution and particle identification capabilities of these detectors depend in part on the ability to accurately identify individual photoelectrons in PMT waveforms despite large variability in pulse amplitudes and pulse pileup. We describe a Bayesian technique that can identify the times of individual photoelectrons in a sampled PMT waveform without deconvolution, even when pileup is present. To demonstrate the technique, we apply it to the general problem of particle identification in single-phase liquid argon dark matter detectors. Using the output of the Bayesian photoelectron counting algorithm described in this paper, we construct several test statistics for rejection of backgrounds for dark matter searches in argon. Compared to simpler methods based on either observed charge or peak finding, the photoelectron counting technique improves both energy resolution and particle identification of low energy events in calibration data from the DEAP-1 detector and simulation of the larger MiniCLEAN dark matter detector.
arXiv comment16 pages, 16 figures
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Cited by in corpus (12)
- Search for dark matter with a 231-day exposure of liquid argon using DEAP-3600 at SNOLAB
- First results from the DEAP-3600 dark matter search with argon at SNOLAB
- Measurement of the scintillation time spectra and pulse-shape discrimination of low-energy beta and nuclear recoils in liquid argon with DEAP-1
- Pulseshape discrimination against low-energy Ar-39 beta decays in liquid argon with 4.5 tonne-years of DEAP-3600 data
- Liquid xenon scintillation measurements and pulse shape discrimination in the LUX dark matter detector
- Detecting Cherenkov Light From 1-2 MeV Electrons in Linear Alkylbenzene
- Fast component re-emission in Xe-doped liquid argon
- Triplet Lifetime in Gaseous Argon
- The Fast Stochastic Matching Pursuit for Neutrino and Dark Matter Experiments
- Characterization of the Hamamatsu 8-inch R14688-100 PMT
- Pulse Shape Discrimination Algorithms: Survey and Benchmark
- Supervised learning of photoelectron counting in scintillator-based dark matter experiments