학술논문
Applying Superfluid Helium to Light Dark Matter Searches: Demonstration of the HeRALD Detector Concept
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Anthony-Petersen, R.; Biekert, A.; Chang, C. L.; Chang, Y.; Chaplinsky, L.; Dushkin, A.; Fink, C. W.; Garcia-Sciveres, M.; Guo, W.; Hertel, S. A.; Li, X.; Lin, J.; Mahapatra, R.; Matava, W.; McKinsey, D. N.; Osterman, D. Z.; Patel, P. K.; Penning, B.; Pinckney, H. D.; Platt, M.; Pyle, M.; Qi, Y.; Reed, M.; Rischbieter, G. R. C; Romani, R. K.; Serafin, A.; Serfass, B.; Smith, R. J.; Sorensen, P.; Suerfu, B.; Suzuki, A.; Velan, V.; Wang, G.; Wang, Y.; Watkins, S. L.; Williams, M. R.
Source
Subject
Language
Abstract
The SPICE/HeRALD collaboration is performing R&D to enable studies of sub-GeV dark matter models using a variety of target materials. Here we report our recent progress on instrumenting a superfluid $^4$He target mass with a transition-edge sensor based calorimeter to detect both atomic signals (e.g. scintillation) and $^4$He quasiparticle (phonon and roton) excitations. The sensitivity of HeRALD to the critical "quantum evaporation" signal from $^4$He quasiparticles requires us to block the superfluid film flow to the calorimeter. We have developed a heat-free film-blocking method employing an unoxidized Cs film, which we implemented in a prototype "HeRALD v0.1" detector of $\sim$10~g target mass. This article reports initial studies of the atomic and quasiparticle signal channels. A key result of this work is the measurement of the quantum evaporation channel's gain of $0.15 \pm 0.012$, which will enable $^4$He-based dark matter experiments in the near term. With this gain the HeRALD detector reported here has an energy threshold of 145~eV at 5 sigma, which would be sensitive to dark matter masses down to 220~MeV/c$^2$.
Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures
Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures