Ionization and scintillation of nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2015.04.057
• Publication Date: 2015-05-06T16:30:29Z
• Authors: J. Renner; V.M. Gehman; A. Goldschmidt; H.S. Matis; T. Miller; Y. Nakajima; D. Nygren; C.A.B. Oliveira; D. Shuman; V. Álvarez; F.I.G. Borges; S. Cárcel; J. Castel; S. Cebrián; A. Cervera; C.A.N. Conde; T. Dafni; T.H.V.T. Dias; J. Díaz; R. Esteve; P. Evtoukhovitch; L.M.P. Fernandes; P. Ferrario; A.L. Ferreira; E.D.C. Freitas; A. Gil; H. Gómez; J.J. Gómez-Cadenas; D. González-Díaz; R.M. Gutiérrez; J. Hauptman; J.A. Hernando Morata; D.C. Herrera; F.J. Iguaz; I.G. Irastorza; M.A. Jinete; L. Labarga; A. Laing; I. Liubarsky; J.A.M. Lopes; D. Lorca; M. Losada; G. Luzón; A. Marí; J. Martín-Albo; A. Martínez; A. Moiseenko; F. Monrabal; M. Monserrate; C.M.B. Monteiro; F.J. Mora; L.M. Moutinho; J. Muñoz Vidal; H. Natal da Luz; G. Navarro; M. Nebot-Guinot; R. Palma; J. Pérez; J.L. Pérez Aparicio; L. Ripoll; A. Rodríguez; J. Rodríguez; F.P. Santos; J.M.F. dos Santos; L. Seguí; L. Serra; A. Simón; C. Sofka; M. Sorel; J.F. Toledo; A. Tomás; J. Torrent; Z. Tsamalaidze; J.F.C.A. Veloso; J.A. Villar; R.C. Webb; J. White; N. Yahlali
• Keywords: MECANICA DE LOS MEDIOS CONTINUOS Y TEORIA DE ESTRUCTURAS; Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors; WIMP; FOS: Physical sciences; Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det); 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy; High Energy Physics - Experiment; TECNOLOGIA ELECTRONICA; High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex); 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; High pressure xenon gas; 0103 physical sciences; Dark matter; Nuclear recoils; Neutrinoless double beta decay; Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Experiment

Ionization and scintillation produced by nuclear recoils in gaseous xenon at approximately 14 bar have been simultaneously observed in an electroluminescent time projection chamber. Neutrons from radioisotope $��$-Be neutron sources were used to induce xenon nuclear recoils, and the observed recoil spectra were compared to a detailed Monte Carlo employing estimated ionization and scintillation yields for nuclear recoils. The ability to discriminate between electronic and nuclear recoils using the ratio of ionization to primary scintillation is demonstrated. These results encourage further investigation on the use of xenon in the gas phase as a detector medium in dark matter direct detection experiments.<br/>15 pages, 14 figures<br/>