Proposed low-energy absolute calibration of nuclear recoils in a dual-phase noble element TPC using D-D neutron scattering kinematics

Abstract

We propose a new technique for the calibration of nuclear recoils in large noble element dual-phase time projection chambers used to search for WIMP dark matter in the local galactic halo. This technique provides an $\text{in situ}$ measurement of the low-energy nuclear recoil response of the target media using the measured scattering angle between multiple neutron interactions within the detector volume. The low-energy reach and reduced systematics of this calibration have particular significance for the low-mass WIMP sensitivity of several leading dark matter experiments. Multiple strategies for improving this calibration technique are discussed, including the creation of a new type of quasi-monoenergetic 272 keV neutron source. We report results from a time-of-flight based measurement of the neutron energy spectrum produced by an Adelphi Technology, Inc. DD108 neutron generator, confirming its suitability for the proposed nuclear recoil calibration.

arXiv comment21 pages, 18 figures, 6 tables

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Cited by in corpus (18)

• First Dark Matter Search Results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment
• Improved Limits on Scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles from Reanalysis of 2013 LUX data
• Limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross section obtained from the complete LUX exposure
• Directly detecting sub-GeV dark matter with electrons from nuclear scattering
• A Review of Basic Energy Reconstruction Techniques in Liquid Xenon and Argon Detectors for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics Using NEST
• Calibration, event reconstruction, data analysis and limits calculation for the LUX dark matter experiment
• Discrimination of electronic recoils from nuclear recoils in two-phase xenon time projection chambers
• Exploring coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering using reactor electron antineutrinos in the NEON experiment
• New constraints and discovery potential of sub-GeV dark matter with xenon detectors
• Position Reconstruction in LUX
• Measuring the Migdal effect in semiconductors for dark matter detection
• Improved Measurements of the \b{eta}-Decay Response of Liquid Xenon with the LUX Detector
• Two-neutrino double electron capture of ${}^{124}$Xe in the first LUX-ZEPLIN exposure
• The Design, Implementation, and Performance of the LZ Calibration Systems
• Nuclear Recoil Calibration at Sub-keV Energies in LUX and Its Impact on Dark Matter Search Sensitivity
• A portable and high intensity 24 keV neutron source based on ${}^{124}$Sb-${}^9$Be photoneutrons and an iron filter
• Nuclear recoil response of liquid xenon and its impact on solar 8B neutrino and dark matter searches
• A novel nuclear recoil calibration for liquid noble gas detectors