Rejection of Electronic Recoils with the DMTPC Dark Matter Search

• Main Authors: Lopez, Jeremy Paul (Contributor), Ahlen, S. (Author), Battat, James (Author), Caldwell, T. (Contributor), Chernicoff, M. (Author), Dujmic, Denis (Contributor), Dushkin, A. (Author), Fedus, William B. (Contributor), Golub, F. (Author), Henderson, Shawn Wesley (Contributor), Inglis, A. (Author), Kaboth, Asher Cunningham (Contributor), Kirsch, L. (Author), Lee, A. (Contributor), Monroe, J. (Contributor), Ouyang, H. (Author), Sahin, T. (Contributor), Sciolla, G. (Author), Skvorodnev, N. (Author), Tomita, H. (Author), Wellenstein, H. (Author), Wolfe, I. (Contributor), Yamamoto, R. (Contributor), Yegoryan, H. (Contributor), Deaconu, Cosmin Stefan (Contributor), Fisher, Peter H. (Contributor), Kohse, Gordon E. (Contributor), Lanza, Richard C. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science (Contributor), MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (Contributor), MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier, 2014-11-24T19:03:06Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

The Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber (DMTPC) collaboration is developing a low-pressure gas TPC for detecting WIMP-nucleon interactions. DMTPC detectors use optical readout with CCD cameras to search for the daily modulation of the directional signal of the dark matter wind. An analysis of several charge readout channels has been developed to obtain additional information about ionization events in the detector. In order to reach sensitivities required for the WIMP detection, the detector needs to minimize backgrounds from electron recoils. This article shows that by using the readout of charge signals in addition to CCD readout, a preliminary statistics-limited 90% C.L. upper limit on the γ and e[superscript −] rejection factor of 5.6 × 10[superscript −6] is obtained for energies between 40 keV[subscript ee] and 200 keV[subscript ee].
United States. Dept. of Energy (Grant DE-FG02-05ER41360)
United States. Dept. of Energy. Advanced Detector Research Program (Contract 6916448)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. James H. Ferry Fund for Innovation in Research Education
MIT Department of Physics Pappalardo Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Charles E. Reed Faculty Initiative Fund)
Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Bates Linear Accelerator Center