Joint NPA/WIDG Seminar (Nuclear Particle Astrophysics/Weak Interaction Discussion Group): Evan Pease, Yale University, “Measurements of the light and charge response of liquid xenon with the LUX detector”

Event time: 
Tuesday, May 24, 2016 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Location: 
Wright Lab, EAL 108 Conference Room (EAL108) See map
268 Whitney Avenue
New Haven 06520
(Location is wheelchair accessible)
Event description: 

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) detector is a 350‐kg liquid xenon time‐projection chamber designed for the direct detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a leading dark matter candidate. LUX operates on the 4850‐foot level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. Monoenergetic electronic recoil (ER) peaks in the WIMP search and calibration data from the first underground science run of the LUX detector are used to measure ER light and charge yields in liquid xenon between 5.2 keV and 662 keV. The energy resolution of the LUX detector at these energies will also be presented. Recombination fluctuations are observed to follow a linear dependence on the number of ions for the energies in this study, and this dependence is consistent with low‐energy measurements made with a tritium beta source in the LUX detector. Using these results and additional measurements of the recoil bands from tritium and deuterium‐deuterium (DD) neutron calibrations, LUX data suggest the same model for recombination fluctuations can be used for electronic and nuclear recoils. In addition to this focused look at recombination physics from tritium and D‐D data, an overview of these low energy calibrations, their successful use in the LUX experiment, and the impact they have had on LUX analyses and the broader liquid xenon community will also be presented.

Pizza will be served at 11:45 AM outside the Wright Lab/EAL 108 Conference Room