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A buffer-free concept bubble chamber for PICO dark matter searches
Other   Open access   Peer reviewed

A buffer-free concept bubble chamber for PICO dark matter searches

Matthew Bressler, Peter Campion, V Cushman, Alexander Morrese, Johannes Wagner, Salvatore Zerbo, Russell Neilson, Mike Crisler, C Dahl and Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
arXiv.org, v 14(8), pp P08019-P08019
28 Jul 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/14/08/P08019
url
https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.07367View
SubmittedOpen Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

Alpha decay Bellows Bubble chambers Buffer layers Chambers Dark matter Decay rate Perfluorocarbons Recoil Searching Stereoscopy Surface tension Thresholds Weakly interacting massive particles
In this paper, we report on the successful operation at Drexel University of the PICO collaboration's first C\(_3\)F\(_8\) buffer-free prototype fluorocarbon bubble chamber. Previous PICO bubble chambers have produced world-leading WIMP search results with fluorocarbon target fluids, separated from the steel bellows by a buffer layer of water. Surface tension effects at the jar walls and liquid-liquid interface lead to a class of background events which have nuclear-recoil-like acoustic signatures and thus contaminate the WIMP-like signal region in analysis. Thus new bubble chambers are to be constructed "right-side-up", meaning that the jar of C\(_3\)F\(_8\) is above the bellows with no water inside the inner vessel. The Drexel Bubble Chamber (DBC), runs successfully at and below the nuclear recoil thresholds used by PICO for WIMP searches, including thresholds as low as 1.19 keV. We have demonstrated sensitivity to \(^{137}\)Cs gammas and spontaneous fission neutrons from \(^{244}\)Cm, and acoustic alpha discrimination is demonstrated to be possible although the observed rate of alpha decays is very low. Position reconstruction from stereoscopic imaging allows for basic analysis cuts for calibration data. The successful construction and operation of this prototype confirm the effectiveness of the right-side-up design, which will be used in future dark matter searches such as PICO-40L and PICO-500.

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