Low Energy Nuclear Recoils in the ReD Experiment.

• Grant number: 22/09674-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: October 01, 2022
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Ivone Freire da Mota e Albuquerque
• Grantee: Ramon Perez Varona
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/18542-9 - Sensitivity Projections for the DarkSide experiment, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

This project aims at contributing to the DarkSide collaboration experimental effort to directly detect dark matter. It envisages participating in the "Recoil Directionality Experiment" (ReD), which is one of the DarkSide's working groups. This experiment has among its goals the precise measurement of the nuclear recoil at very low energies due to neutron interactions on a liquid Argon target. These interactions are expected to be the same as those for dark matter particles. The motivation for this measurement comes from the fact that, up to now, no dark matter signal has been found by probes that are optimized for masses above 10 GeV/c2.We note and underscore the extremely important probes of the a few orders of magnitudes in terms of the dark matter nucleon cross-sections that are on the way. However, the so far null results have stimulated both experimental and theoretical efforts in investigating the low dark matter mass region. With the goal of contributing for probes in this low mass region, the IFUSP group, which collaborates with the ReD and DarkSide experiments, has proposed two ways to determine the very low nuclear recoil energies in the ReD Liquid Argon double phase Time Projection Chamber: one using a radioactive source and the other using a neutron gun as neutron beams. It was shown that these are the most optimal for such a low measurement, and both are able to reach the necessary precision to succeed in measuring dark matter with nobel liquid double phase detectors.This post-doctorate aims to contribute to such effort, developing necessary Monte Carlo tools, both for optimization as well as for analysis of these two phases of the ReD experiment. Also as a goal, is the comparison of our results with theoretical models for the nuclear recoil energies, aiming at probing them.