Attention:The NSF Public Access Repository (PAR) system and access will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET on Thursday, August 13 until 12:00 AM ET on Friday, August 14 due to maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.


This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2027

Title: Low-energy nuclear recoil calibration of XENONnT with a Y88Be photoneutron source
Characterizing low-energy, keV-range nuclear recoils near the detector threshold is one of the major challenges for large direct dark matter detectors. To that end, we have successfully used an Yttrium-Beryllium photoneutron source that emits 152 keV neutrons for the calibration of the light and charge yields of the XENONnT experiment for the first time. After data selection, we accumulated 474 events from 183 hours of exposure with this source. The expected background was 55 ± 12 accidental coincidence events, estimated using a dedicated 152 hour background calibration run with a Yttrium-PVC gamma-only source and data-driven modeling. From these calibrations, we extracted the light (charge) yield for liquid xenon at our field strength of 23 V / cm between 0.3 (0.7) keV NR and 5.0 keV NR . This calibration is crucial for accurately measuring the solar B 8 neutrino coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and searching for light dark matter particles with masses below 12 GeV / c 2 more » « less
Award ID(s):
2514320 2514319 2112802
PAR ID:
10697742
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more » ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
Corporate Creator(s):
Publisher / Repository:
PHYSICAL REVIEW D
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Physical Review D
Volume:
113
Issue:
11
ISSN:
2470-0010
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. We present the first measurement of nuclear recoils from solar B 8 neutrinos via coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering with the XENONnT dark matter experiment. The central detector of XENONnT is a low-background, two-phase time projection chamber with a 5.9 t sensitive liquid xenon target. A blind analysis with an exposure of 3.51 t × yr resulted in 37 observed events above 0.5 keV, with ( 26.4 1.3 + 1.4 ) events expected from backgrounds. The background-only hypothesis is rejected with a statistical significance of 2.73 σ . The measured B 8 solar neutrino flux of ( 4.7 2.3 + 3.6 ) × 10 6 cm 2 s 1 is consistent with results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. The measured neutrino flux-weighted CE ν NS cross section on Xe of ( 1.1 0.5 + 0.8 ) × 10 39 cm 2 is consistent with the Standard Model prediction. This is the first direct measurement of nuclear recoils from solar neutrinos with a dark matter detector. Published by the American Physical Society2024 
    more » « less
  2. The production yields of the orbitally excited charm-strange mesons D s 1 ( 1 + ) ( 2536 ) + and D s 2 * ( 2 + ) ( 2573 ) + were measured for the first time in proton-proton (pp) collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The D s 1 + and D s 2 * + mesons were measured at midrapidity ( | y | < 0.5 ) in minimum-bias and high-multiplicity pp collisions in the transverse-momentum interval 2 < p T < 24 GeV / c . Their production yields relative to the D s + ground-state yield were found to be compatible between minimum-bias and high-multiplicity collisions, as well as with previous measurements in e ± p and e + e collisions. The measured D s 1 + / D s + and D s 2 * + / D s + yield ratios are described by statistical hadronization models and can be used to tune the parameters governing the production of excited charm-strange hadrons in Monte Carlo generators, such as 8. 
    more » « less
  3. The Ξ b 0 ( ) Ξ c ( 3055 ) + ( 0 ) ( D + ( 0 ) Λ ) π decay chains are observed, and the spin-parity of Ξ c ( 3055 ) + ( 0 ) baryons is determined for the first time. The measurement is performed using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV , corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb 1 , recorded by the LHCb experiment between 2016 and 2018. The spin-parity of the Ξ c ( 3055 ) + ( 0 ) baryons is determined to be 3 / 2 + with a significance of more than 6.5 σ ( 3.5 σ ) compared to all other tested hypotheses. The up-down asymmetries of the Ξ b 0 ( ) Ξ c ( 3055 ) + ( 0 ) π transitions are measured to be 0.92 ± 0.10 ± 0.05 ( 0.92 ± 0.16 ± 0.22 ), consistent with maximal parity violation, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. These results support the hypothesis that the Ξ c ( 3055 ) + ( 0 ) baryons correspond to the first D -wave λ -mode excitation of the Ξ c flavor triplet. © 2025 CERN, for the LHCb Collaboration2025CERN 
    more » « less
  4. We report the first evidence for the h b ( 2 P ) ϒ ( 1 S ) η transition with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations. The decay branching fraction is measured to be B [ h b ( 2 P ) ϒ ( 1 S ) η ] = ( 7.1 3.2 + 3.7 ± 0.8 ) × 10 3 , which is noticeably smaller than expected. We also set upper limits on π 0 transitions of B [ h b ( 2 P ) ϒ ( 1 S ) π 0 ] < 1.8 × 10 3 , and B [ h b ( 1 P ) ϒ ( 1 S ) π 0 ] < 1.8 × 10 3 , at the 90% confidence level. These results are obtained with a 131.4 fb 1 data sample collected near the ϒ ( 5 S ) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e + e collider. Published by the American Physical Society2024 
    more » « less
  5. Asymptotic giant branch stars are responsible for the production of most of the heavy isotopes beyond Sr observed in the solar system. Among them, isotopes shielded from the r -process contribution by their stable isobars are defined as s -only nuclei. For a long time the abundance of Pb 204 , the heaviest s -only isotope, has been a topic of debate because state-of-the-art stellar models appeared to systematically underestimate its solar abundance. Besides the impact of uncertainties from stellar models and galactic chemical evolution simulations, this discrepancy was further obscured by rather divergent theoretical estimates for the neutron capture cross section of its radioactive precursor in the neutron-capture flow, Tl 204 ( t 1 / 2 = 3.78 yr ), and by the lack of experimental data on this reaction. We present the first ever neutron capture measurement on Tl 204 , conducted at the CERN neutron time-of-flight facility n_TOF, employing a sample of only 9 mg of Tl 204 produced at the Institute Laue Langevin high flux reactor. By complementing our new results with semiempirical calculations we obtained, at the s -process temperatures of k T 8 keV and k T 30 keV , Maxwellian-averaged cross sections (MACS) of 580(168) mb and 260(90) mb, respectively. These figures are about 3% lower and 20% higher than the corresponding values widely used in astrophysical calculations, which were based only on theoretical calculations. By using the new Tl 204 MACS, the uncertainty arising from the Tl 204 ( n , γ ) cross section on the s -process abundance of Pb 204 has been reduced from 30 % down to + 8 % / 6 % , and the s -process calculations are in agreement with the latest solar system abundance of Pb 204 reported by K. Lodders in 2021. Published by the American Physical Society2024 
    more » « less