Quenching factor measurements of neon nuclei in neon gas

Abstract

The NEWS-G collaboration uses Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs) to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). In this paper, we report the first measurements of the nuclear quenching factor in neon gas at \SI{2}{bar} using an SPC deployed in a neutron beam at the TUNL facility. The energy-dependence of the nuclear quenching factor is modelled using a simple power law: $\alpha$E${}_{nr}^{\beta }$; we determine its parameters by simultaneously fitting the data collected with the detector over a range of energies. We measured the following parameters in Ne:CH${}_4$ at \SI{2}{bar}: $\alpha$ = 0.2801 $\pm$ 0.0050 (fit) $\pm$ 0.0045 (sys) and $\beta$ = 0.0867 $\pm$ 0.020 (fit) $\pm$ 0.006(sys). Our measurements do not agree with expected values from SRIM or Lindhard theory. We demonstrated the feasibility of performing quenching factor measurements at sub-keV energies in gases using SPCs and a neutron beam.

References in corpus (5)

• Dark Matter Candidates from Particle Physics and Methods of Detection
• A novel large-volume Spherical Detector with Proportional Amplification read-out
• A Model of Nuclear Recoil Scintillation Efficiency in Noble Liquids
• Precision laser-based measurements of the single electron response of SPCs for the NEWS-G light dark matter search experiment
• Imaging with the invisible light

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Review on dark matter searches
• Measurement of scintillation response of CsI[Na] to low-energy nuclear recoils by COHERENT