arXiv subjects

Anthony Villano

Publications and source records attributed to Anthony Villano.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Calibrations and backgrounds for dark matter direct detection

Future dark matter direct detection experiments will reach unprecedented levels of sensitivity. Achieving this sensitivity will require more precise models of signal and background rates in future detectors. Improving the precision of signal and background modeling goes hand-in-hand with novel calibration techniques that can probe rare processes and lower threshold detector response. The goal of this white paper is to outline community needs to meet the background and calibration requirements of next-generation dark matter direct detection experiments.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2022

$\texttt{nrCascadeSim}$ -- A simulation tool for nuclear recoil cascades resulting from neutron capture

Neutron capture-induced nuclear recoils have emerged as an important tool for detector calibrations in direct dark matter detection and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS). $\texttt{nrCascadeSim}$ is a command-line tool for generating simulation data for energy deposits resulting from neutron capture on pure materials. Presently, silicon, germanium, neon, and argon are supported. While the software was developed for solid state detector calibration, it can be used for any application which requires simulated neutron capture-induced nuclear recoil data.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2019

Energy Loss Due to Defect Formation from $^{206}$Pb Recoils in SuperCDMS Germanium Detectors

The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment (SuperCDMS) at the Soudan Underground Laboratory studied energy loss associated with Frenkel defect formation in germanium crystals at mK temperatures using in situ $^{210}$Pb sources. We examine the spectrum of $^{206}$Pb nuclear recoils near its expected 103 keV endpoint energy and determine an energy loss of $\left(6.08\pm0.18\right)$ %, which we attribute to defect formation. From this result and using TRIM simulations, we extract the first experimentally determined average displacement threshold energy of $\left(19.7^{+0.6}_{-0.5}\right)$ eV for germanium. This has implications for the analysis thresholds of future germanium-based dark matter searches.

physics.ins-det↗