Design of a keV-scale Neutron source for calibration of low threshold Dark Matter detectors.

ORAL

Abstract

Direct detection dark matter searches are extending their reach to lower (sub-GeV) dark matter masses, requiring new detector technologies with low thresholds and new low-energy calibration methods. For many detectors (when the signal is a recoiling nucleus or atom), the ideal calibration source is a neutron beam of order-keV energy. We will discuss recent progress in making such neutron-based calibrations practical in a university lab environment. First, we will describe a SbBe (gamma,n) neutron source in which a novel shielding method suppresses the outgoing gamma flux while allowing the unmoderated escape of the neutron flux. Second, we will describe a method to moderate and then filter a pulsed Deuterium-Tritium (DT) generator, turning it into a pulsed keV-scale neutron source. And lastly, we will describe work towards large area neutron capture based backing detectors required for a neutron scattering calibration of dark matter experiment targets.

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Authors

  • Pratyush Patel

    • University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    • University of Massachusetts

  • Luke Chaplinsky

    • University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Scott Hertel

    • University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Doug Pinckey

    • University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Alessandro Serafin

    • University of Massachusetts, Amherst

  • Ethan Bernard

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Andreas Biekert

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Junsong Lin

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Daniel Mckinsey

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Roger Romani

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Ryan Smith

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Burkhant Suerfu

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • VETRI VELAN

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Maurice Garcia-Sciveres

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley

  • Wesley Frey

    • University of California, Davis