arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Dennis Wright.
This paper summarizes the modeling, statistics, simulation, and computing needs of direct dark matter detection experiments in the next decade.
This paper summarizes the needs of the dark matter and neutrino communities as it relates to computation. The scope includes data acquisition, triggers, data management and processing, data preservation, simulation, machine learning, data analysis, software engineering, career development, and equity and inclusion. Beyond identifying our community needs, we propose actions that can be taken to strengthen this community and to work together to overcome common challenges.
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.
The proposed KAON factory at the Triumf Laboratory in Vancouver, Canada provides a unique opportunity for high statistics long baseline neutrino oscillation experiments. Several possibilities are under active consideration. In this paper we describe the theoretical expectations for a {\it very} long baseline experiment in which the neutrinos are directed towards, and detected at the Superkamiokande detector in Kamioka, Japan 7200 km away. We find that in the first year this experiment would probe oscillations down to about $Δm^2_0 = 9 \times 10^{-5} eV^2$ for maximal mixing, and if $Δm^2_0 \geq 5 \times 10^{-4} eV^2$ it would be sensitive to $sin^2(2 θ_0) \geq 0.2$. These results are compared with a more modest proposal of a 100 km baseline with a 6300 tonne detector which would probe $Δm^2_0 \geq 1.3 \times 10^{-3} eV^2$ for maximal mixing, and if $Δm^2_0 \geq 0.02 eV^2$ it would be sensitive to $sin^2(2 θ_0) \geq 0.01$. These experiments would either confirm or rule out the entire range of parameters allowed by Kamiokande and IMB to explain the deficit in the ratio of $ν_μ$ to $ν_e$ in current atmospheric neutrino experiments. The Kamiokande experiment would also investigate matter enhanced neutrino oscillations (the MSW effect) down to about $Δm^2 = 3 \times 10^{-4} eV^2$.