Particle detection and tracking with DNA

Abstract

We present the first proof-of-concept simulations of detectors using biomaterials to detect particle interactions. The essential idea behind a "DNA detector" involves the attachment of a forest of precisely-sequenced single or double-stranded nucleic acids from a thin holding layer made of a high-density material. Incoming particles break a series of strands along a roughly co-linear chain of interaction sites and the severed segments then fall to a collection area. Since the sequences of base pairs in nucleic acid molecules can be precisely amplified and measured using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the original spatial position of each broken strand inside the detector can be reconstructed with nm precision. Motivated by the potential use as a low-energy directional particle tracker, we perform the first Monte Carlo simulations of particle interactions inside a DNA detector. We compare the track topology as a function of incoming direction, energy, and particle type for a range of ionising particles. While particle identification and energy reconstruction might be challenging without a significant scale-up, the excellent potential angular and spatial resolution ($\lesssim 25^{\circ }$ axial resolution for a keV-scale particles and nm-scale track segments) are clear advantages of this concept. We conclude that a DNA detector could be a cost-effective, portable, and powerful new particle detection technology. We outline the outstanding experimental challenges, and suggest directions for future laboratory tests.

arXiv comment17+3 pages, 9+3 figures

References in corpus (65)

• A History of Dark Matter
• Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data
• New CAST Limit on the Axion-Photon Interaction
• The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory
• New experimental approaches in the search for axion-like particles
• Direct Detection of Sub-GeV Dark Matter
• Excess Electronic Recoil Events in XENON1T
• Direct Detection of WIMP Dark Matter: Concepts and Status
• Dark matter direct-detection experiments
• Particle Physics from Stars
• Superconducting Detectors for Super Light Dark Matter
• A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
• SENSEI: First Direct-Detection Constraints on sub-GeV Dark Matter from a Surface Run
• Solar constraints on hidden photons re-visited
• Detecting Superlight Dark Matter with Fermi-Degenerate Materials
• Detecting Dark Matter with Superconducting Nanowires
• The case for a directional dark matter detector and the status of current experimental efforts
• A Proposal to Detect Dark Matter Using Axionic Topological Antiferromagnets
• Light Dark Matter in Superfluid Helium: Detection with Multi-excitation Production
• Directional statistics for WIMP direct detection
• Direct Search for Low Mass Dark Matter Particles with CCDs
• SiC Detectors for Sub-GeV Dark Matter
• Direct Detection of Light Dark Matter and Solar Neutrinos via Color Center Production in Crystals
• Readout strategies for directional dark matter detection beyond the neutrino background
• Readout technologies for directional WIMP Dark Matter detection
• A Path to the Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter Using Calorimetric Readout of a Superfluid ${}^4$He Target
• Sub-GeV Dark Matter Detection with Electron Recoils in Carbon Nanotubes
• Directional Dark Matter Detection Beyond the Neutrino Bound
• Directional detection as a strategy to discover Galactic Dark Matter
• Assessing the discovery potential of directional detection of Dark Matter
• A Dark Matter Hurricane: Measuring the S1 Stream with Dark Matter Detectors
• Dark Shards: velocity substructure from Gaia and direct searches for dark matter
• Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis to constrain Dark Matter properties with directional detection
• Low Threshold Results and Limits from the DRIFT Directional Dark Matter Detector
• Directional recoil detection
• Can we overcome the neutrino floor at high masses?
• The median recoil direction as a WIMP directional detection signal
• Directional detection of dark matter streams
• Radiopurity control in the NEXT-100 double beta decay experiment: procedures and initial measurements
• The novel properties of SF${}_6$ for directional dark matter experiments
• Measurement of radioactive contamination in the high-resistivity silicon CCDs of the DAMIC experiment
• Paleo-detectors: Searching for Dark Matter with Ancient Minerals
• Searching for Dark Matter with Paleo-Detectors
• Dark matter directional detection in non-relativistic effective theories
• Probing the Local Velocity Distribution of WIMP Dark Matter with Directional Detectors
• WIMP detection and slow ion dynamics in carbon nanotube arrays
• New directional signatures from the non-relativistic effective field theory of dark matter
• The Directional Dark Matter Detector
• Exploring the hidden interior of the Earth with directional neutrino measurements
• Cosmogenic activation of materials
• Directional detection of dark matter with diamond
• The QUAX-g_p g_s experiment to search for monopole-dipole Axion interaction
• Ultra-Heavy Dark Matter Search with Electron Microscopy of Geological Quartz
• Consequences of statistical sense determination for WIMP directional detection
• Reconstructing the three-dimensional local dark matter velocity distribution
• Time-integrated directional detection of dark matter
• Gaseous Dark Matter Detectors
• CYGNO: a gaseous TPC with optical readout for dark matter directional search
• Absolute Position Measurement in a Gas Time Projection Chamber via Transverse Diffusion of Drift Charge
• New Dark Matter Detectors using DNA or RNA for Nanometer Tracking
• Nuclear Tracks from Cold Dark Matter Interactions in Mineral Crystals: A Computational Study
• Unique Signature of Dark Matter in Ancient Mica
• New class of biological detectors for WIMPs
• Comparing readout strategies to directly detect dark matter
• Discovering supernova-produced dark matter with directional detectors

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Review on dark matter searches
• Revisiting the Fermionic Dark Matter Absorption on Electron Target
• Dark Matter Candidates and Searches
• CYG$\nu$S: Detecting solar neutrinos with directional gas time projection chambers
• Searching for beyond-Standard-Model solar neutrino interactions using directional detectors
• The potential of directional neutrino detection to observe neutrino spin oscillations