First measurement of nuclear recoil head-tail sense in a fiducialised WIMP dark matter detector

Abstract

Recent computational results suggest that directional dark matter detectors have potential to probe for WIMP dark matter particles below the neutrino floor. The DRIFT-IId detector used in this work is a leading directional WIMP search time projection chamber detector. We report the first measurements of the detection of the directional nuclear recoils in a fully fiducialised low-pressure time projection chamber. In this new operational mode, the distance between each event vertex and the readout plane is determined by the measurement of minority carriers produced by adding a small amount of oxygen to the nominal CS${}_2$ + CF${}_4$ target gas mixture. The CS${}_2$ + CF${}_4$ + O${}_2$ mixture has been shown to enable background-free operation at current sensitivities. Sulfur, fluorine, and carbon recoils were generated using neutrons emitted from a ${}^{252}$Cf source positioned at different locations around the detector. Measurement of the relative energy loss along the recoil tracks allowed the track vector sense, or the so-called head-tail asymmetry parameter, to be deduced. Results show that the previously reported observation of head-tail sensitivity in pure CS${}_2$ is well retained after the addition of oxygen to the gas mixture.

arXiv comment17 pages, 11 figures and 3 tables

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• Direct Detection of Dark Matter -- APPEC Committee Report
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