Measurements and models of enhanced recombination following inner-shell vacancies in liquid xenon

Physical Review D American Physical Society (APS) 112:1 (2025) 012024

Authors:

J Aalbers, DS Akerib, AK Al Musalhi, F Alder, CS Amarasinghe, A Ames, TJ Anderson, N Angelides, HM Araújo, JE Armstrong, M Arthurs, A Baker, S Balashov, J Bang, JW Bargemann, EE Barillier, K Beattie, T Benson, A Bhatti, A Biekert, TP Biesiadzinski, HJ Birch, E Bishop, GM Blockinger, B Boxer, CAJ Brew, P Brás, S Burdin, M Buuck, MC Carmona-Benitez, M Carter, A Chawla, H Chen, JJ Cherwinka, YT Chin, NI Chott, MV Converse, R Coronel, A Cottle, G Cox, D Curran, CE Dahl, I Darlington, S Dave, A David, J Delgaudio, S Dey, L de Viveiros, L Di Felice, C Ding, JEY Dobson, E Druszkiewicz, S Dubey, SR Eriksen, A Fan, NM Fearon, N Fieldhouse, S Fiorucci, H Flaecher, ED Fraser, TMA Fruth, RJ Gaitskell, A Geffre, J Genovesi, C Ghag, R Gibbons, S Gokhale, J Green, MGD van der Grinten, JJ Haiston, CR Hall, T Hall, S Han, E Hartigan-O’Connor, SJ Haselschwardt, MA Hernandez, SA Hertel, G Heuermann, GJ Homenides, M Horn, DQ Huang, D Hunt, E Jacquet, RS James, MK Kannichankandy, AC Kaboth, AC Kamaha, D Khaitan, A Khazov, J Kim, YD Kim, J Kingston, R Kirk, D Kodroff, L Korley, EV Korolkova, H Kraus, S Kravitz, L Kreczko, VA Kudryavtsev, C Lawes, DS Leonard, KT Lesko, C Levy, J Lin, A Lindote, WH Lippincott, MI Lopes, W Lorenzon, C Lu, S Luitz, PA Majewski, A Manalaysay, RL Mannino, C Maupin, ME McCarthy, G McDowell, DN McKinsey, J McLaughlin, JB McLaughlin, R McMonigle, E Mizrachi, ME Monzani, E Morrison, BJ Mount, M Murdy, A St J Murphy, HN Nelson, F Neves, A Nguyen, CL O’Brien, I Olcina, KC Oliver-Mallory, J Orpwood, KY Oyulmaz, KJ Palladino, J Palmer, NJ Pannifer, N Parveen, SJ Patton, B Penning, G Pereira, E Perry, T Pershing, A Piepke, Y Qie, J Reichenbacher, CA Rhyne, GRC Rischbieter, E Ritchey, HS Riyat, R Rosero, T Rushton, D Rynders, D Santone, ABMR Sazzad, RW Schnee, G Sehr, B Shafer, S Shaw, K Shi, T Shutt, JJ Silk, C Silva, J Siniscalco, R Smith, VN Solovov, P Sorensen, J Soria, I Stancu, A Stevens, K Stifter, B Suerfu, TJ Sumner, A Swain, M Szydagis, DR Tiedt, M Timalsina, Z Tong, DR Tovey, J Tranter, M Trask, M Tripathi, A Usón, AC Vaitkus, O Valentino, V Velan, A Wang, JJ Wang, Y Wang, JR Watson, L Weeldreyer, TJ Whitis, K Wild, M Williams, WJ Wisniewski, L Wolf, FLH Wolfs, S Woodford, D Woodward, CJ Wright, Q Xia, J Xu, Y Xu, M Yeh, D Yeum, W Zha, H Zhang

Abstract:

Electron-capture decays of Xe 125 and Xe 127 , and double-electron-capture decays of Xe 124 , are backgrounds in searches for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) conducted by dual-phase xenon time projection chambers such as LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ). These decays produce signals with more light and less charge than equivalent-energy β decays and correspondingly overlap more with WIMP signals. We measure three electron-capture charge yields in LZ: the 1.1 keV M-shell, 5.2 keV L-shell, and 33.2 keV K-shell at drift fields of 193 and 96.5 V / cm . The LL double-electron-capture decay of Xe 124 exhibits even more pronounced shifts in charge and light. We provide a first model of double-electron-capture charge yields using the link between ionization density and electron-ion recombination, and identify a need for more accurate calculations. Finally, we discuss the implications of the reduced charge yield of these decays and other interactions creating inner-shell vacancies for future dark matter searches.

First Constraint on Atmospheric Millicharged Particles with the LUX-ZEPLIN Experiment

Physical Review Letters American Physical Society (APS) 134:24 (2025) 241802

Authors:

J Aalbers, DS Akerib, AK Al Musalhi, F Alder, CS Amarasinghe, A Ames, TJ Anderson, N Angelides, HM Araújo, JE Armstrong, M Arthurs, A Baker, S Balashov, J Bang, JW Bargemann, EE Barillier, D Bauer, K Beattie, T Benson, A Bhatti, A Biekert, TP Biesiadzinski, HJ Birch, E Bishop, GM Blockinger, B Boxer, CAJ Brew, P Brás, S Burdin, M Buuck, MC Carmona-Benitez, M Carter, A Chawla, H Chen, JJ Cherwinka, YT Chin, NI Chott, MV Converse, R Coronel, A Cottle, G Cox, D Curran, CE Dahl, I Darlington, S Dave, A David, J Delgaudio, S Dey, L de Viveiros, L Di Felice, C Ding, JEY Dobson, E Druszkiewicz, S Dubey, SR Eriksen, A Fan, S Fayer, NM Fearon, N Fieldhouse, S Fiorucci, H Flaecher, ED Fraser, TMA Fruth, RJ Gaitskell, A Geffre, J Genovesi, C Ghag, A Ghosh, R Gibbons, S Gokhale, J Green, MGD van der Grinten, JJ Haiston, CR Hall, TJ Hall, S Han, E Hartigan-O’Connor, SJ Haselschwardt, MA Hernandez, SA Hertel, G Heuermann, GJ Homenides, M Horn, DQ Huang, D Hunt, E Jacquet, RS James, J Johnson, AC Kaboth, AC Kamaha, M Kannichankandy, D Khaitan, A Khazov, I Khurana, J Kim, YD Kim, J Kingston, R Kirk, D Kodroff, L Korley, EV Korolkova, H Kraus, S Kravitz, L Kreczko, VA Kudryavtsev, C Lawes, DS Leonard, KT Lesko, C Levy, J Lin, A Lindote, WH Lippincott, MI Lopes, W Lorenzon, C Lu, S Luitz, PA Majewski, A Manalaysay, RL Mannino, C Maupin, ME McCarthy, G McDowell, DN McKinsey, J McLaughlin, JB McLaughlin, R McMonigle, E Mizrachi, A Monte, ME Monzani, JD Morales Mendoza, E Morrison, BJ Mount, M Murdy, A St J Murphy, A Naylor, HN Nelson, F Neves, A Nguyen, CL O’Brien, I Olcina, KC Oliver-Mallory, J Orpwood, KY Oyulmaz, KJ Palladino, J Palmer, NJ Pannifer, N Parveen, SJ Patton, B Penning, G Pereira, E Perry, T Pershing, A Piepke, Y Qie, J Reichenbacher, CA Rhyne, A Richards, Q Riffard, GRC Rischbieter, E Ritchey, HS Riyat, R Rosero, T Rushton, D Rynders, D Santone, ABMR Sazzad, RW Schnee, G Sehr, B Shafer, S Shaw, T Shutt, JJ Silk, C Silva, G Sinev, J Siniscalco, R Smith, VN Solovov, P Sorensen, J Soria, I Stancu, A Stevens, K Stifter, B Suerfu, TJ Sumner, M Szydagis, DR Tiedt, M Timalsina, Z Tong, DR Tovey, J Tranter, M Trask, M Tripathi, A Usón, A Vacheret, AC Vaitkus, O Valentino, V Velan, A Wang, JJ Wang, Y Wang, JR Watson, L Weeldreyer, TJ Whitis, K Wild, M Williams, WJ Wisniewski, L Wolf, FLH Wolfs, S Woodford, D Woodward, CJ Wright, Q Xia, J Xu, Y Xu, M Yeh, D Yeum, W Zha, H Zhang, EA Zweig

New Constraints on Cosmic Ray-Boosted Dark Matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN Experiment

Physical Review Letters American Physical Society (APS) 134:24 (2025) 241801

Authors:

J Aalbers, DS Akerib, AK Al Musalhi, F Alder, CS Amarasinghe, A Ames, TJ Anderson, N Angelides, HM Araújo, JE Armstrong, M Arthurs, A Baker, S Balashov, J Bang, JW Bargemann, EE Barillier, K Beattie, T Benson, A Bhatti, A Biekert, TP Biesiadzinski, HJ Birch, E Bishop, GM Blockinger, B Boxer, CAJ Brew, P Brás, S Burdin, M Buuck, MC Carmona-Benitez, M Carter, A Chawla, H Chen, JJ Cherwinka, YT Chin, NI Chott, MV Converse, R Coronel, A Cottle, G Cox, D Curran, CE Dahl, I Darlington, S Dave, A David, J Delgaudio, S Dey, L de Viveiros, L Di Felice, C Ding, JEY Dobson, E Druszkiewicz, S Dubey, SR Eriksen, A Fan, NM Fearon, N Fieldhouse, S Fiorucci, H Flaecher, ED Fraser, TMA Fruth, RJ Gaitskell, A Geffre, J Genovesi, C Ghag, R Gibbons, S Gokhale, J Green, MGD van der Grinten, JJ Haiston, CR Hall, T Hall, S Han, E Hartigan-O’Connor, SJ Haselschwardt, MA Hernandez, SA Hertel, G Heuermann, GJ Homenides, M Horn, DQ Huang, D Hunt, E Jacquet, RS James, MK Kannichankandy, AC Kaboth, AC Kamaha, D Khaitan, A Khazov, J Kim, YD Kim, J Kingston, R Kirk, D Kodroff, L Korley, EV Korolkova, H Kraus, S Kravitz, L Kreczko, VA Kudryavtsev, C Lawes, DS Leonard, KT Lesko, C Levy, J Lin, A Lindote, WH Lippincott, MI Lopes, W Lorenzon, C Lu, S Luitz, PA Majewski, A Manalaysay, RL Mannino, C Maupin, ME McCarthy, G McDowell, DN McKinsey, J McLaughlin, JB McLaughlin, R McMonigle, E Mizrachi, ME Monzani, E Morrison, BJ Mount, M Murdy, A St J Murphy, HN Nelson, F Neves, A Nguyen, CL O’Brien, I Olcina, KC Oliver-Mallory, J Orpwood, KY Oyulmaz, KJ Palladino, J Palmer, NJ Pannifer, N Parveen, SJ Patton, B Penning, G Pereira, E Perry, T Pershing, A Piepke, Y Qie, J Reichenbacher, CA Rhyne, GRC Rischbieter, E Ritchey, HS Riyat, R Rosero, T Rushton, D Rynders, D Santone, ABMR Sazzad, RW Schnee, G Sehr, B Shafer, S Shaw, K Shi, T Shutt, JJ Silk, C Silva, J Siniscalco, R Smith, VN Solovov, P Sorensen, J Soria, I Stancu, A Stevens, K Stifter, B Suerfu, TJ Sumner, A Swain, M Szydagis, DR Tiedt, M Timalsina, Z Tong, DR Tovey, J Tranter, M Trask, M Tripathi, A Usón, AC Vaitkus, O Valentino, V Velan, A Wang, JJ Wang, Y Wang, JR Watson, L Weeldreyer, TJ Whitis, K Wild, M Williams, WJ Wisniewski, L Wolf, FLH Wolfs, S Woodford, D Woodward, CJ Wright, Q Xia, J Xu, Y Xu, M Yeh, D Yeum, W Zha, H Zhang

Measurements and models of enhanced recombination following inner-shell vacancies in liquid xenon

(2025)

Authors:

J Aalbers, DS Akerib, AK Al Musalhi, F Alder, CS Amarasinghe, A Ames, TJ Anderson, N Angelides, HM Araújo, JE Armstrong, M Arthurs, A Baker, S Balashov, J Bang, JW Bargemann, EE Barillier, D Bauer, K Beattie, T Benson, A Bhatti, A Biekert, TP Biesiadzinski, HJ Birch, E Bishop, GM Blockinger, B Boxer, CAJ Brew, P Brás, S Burdin, M Buuck, MC Carmona-Benitez, M Carter, A Chawla, H Chen, JJ Cherwinka, YT Chin, NI Chott, MV Converse, R Coronel, A Cottle, G Cox, D Curran, CE Dahl, I Darlington, S Dave, A David, J Delgaudio, S Dey, L de Viveiros, L Di Felice, C Ding, JEY Dobson, E Druszkiewicz, S Dubey, SR Eriksen, A Fan, S Fayer, NM Fearon, N Fieldhouse, S Fiorucci, H Flaecher, ED Fraser, TMA Fruth, RJ Gaitskell, A Geffre, J Genovesi, C Ghag, A Ghosh, R Gibbons, S Gokhale, J Green, MGD van der Grinten, JJ Haiston, CR Hall, TJ Hall, S Han, E Hartigan-O'Connor, SJ Haselschwardt, MA Hernandez, SA Hertel, G Heuermann, GJ Homenides, M Horn, DQ Huang, D Hunt, E Jacquet, RS James, J Johnson, AC Kaboth, AC Kamaha, Meghna K K., D Khaitan, A Khazov, I Khurana, J Kim, YD Kim, J Kingston, R Kirk, D Kodroff, L Korley, EV Korolkova, H Kraus, S Kravitz, L Kreczko, VA Kudryavtsev, C Lawes, DS Leonard, KT Lesko, C Levy, J Lin, A Lindote, WH Lippincott, MI Lopes, W Lorenzon, C Lu, S Luitz, PA Majewski, A Manalaysay, RL Mannino, C Maupin, ME McCarthy, G McDowell, DN McKinsey, J McLaughlin, JB McLaughlin, R McMonigle, E Mizrachi, A Monte, ME Monzani, JD Morales Mendoza, E Morrison, BJ Mount, M Murdy, A St J Murphy, A Naylor, HN Nelson, F Neves, A Nguyen, CL O'Brien, I Olcina, KC Oliver-Mallory, J Orpwood, KY Oyulmaz, KJ Palladino, J Palmer, NJ Pannifer, N Parveen, SJ Patton, B Penning, G Pereira, E Perry, T Pershing, A Piepke, Y Qie, J Reichenbacher, CA Rhyne, A Richards, Q Riffard, GRC Rischbieter, E Ritchey, HS Riyat, R Rosero, T Rushton, D Rynders, D Santone, ABMR Sazzad, RW Schnee, G Sehr, B Shafer, S Shaw, T Shutt, JJ Silk, C Silva, G Sinev, J Siniscalco, R Smith, VN Solovov, P Sorensen, J Soria, I Stancu, A Stevens, K Stifter, B Suerfu, TJ Sumner, M Szydagis, DR Tiedt, M Timalsina, Z Tong, DR Tovey, J Tranter, M Trask, M Tripathi, A Usón, A Vacheret, AC Vaitkus, O Valentino, V Velan, A Wang, JJ Wang, Y Wang, JR Watson, L Weeldreyer, TJ Whitis, K Wild, M Williams, WJ Wisniewski, L Wolf, FLH Wolfs, S Woodford, D Woodward, CJ Wright, Q Xia, J Xu, Y Xu, M Yeh, D Yeum, W Zha, EA Zweig

Quality assurance and quality control of the 26 m 2 SiPM production for the DarkSide-20k dark matter experiment

The European Physical Journal C SpringerOpen 85:5 (2025) 534

Authors:

F Acerbi, P Adhikari, P Agnes, I Ahmad, S Albergo, IF Albuquerque, T Alexander, AK Alton, P Amaudruz, M Angiolilli, E Aprile, M Atzori Corona, DJ Auty, M Ave, IC Avetisov, O Azzolini, HO Back, Z Balmforth, A Barrado Olmedo, P Barrillon, G Batignani, P Bhowmick, M Bloem, S Blua

Abstract:

DarkSide-20k is a novel liquid argon dark matter detector currently under construction at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) that will push the sensitivity for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) detection into the neutrino fog. The core of the apparatus is a dual-phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC), filled with 50 tonnes of low radioactivity underground argon (UAr) acting as the WIMP target. NUV-HD-cryo Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM)s designed by Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) (Trento, Italy) were selected as the photon sensors covering two 10.5m2 Optical Planes, one at each end of the TPC, and a total of 5m2 photosensitive surface for the liquid argon veto detectors. This paper describes the Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) plan and procedures accompanying the production of FBK NUV-HD-cryo SiPM wafers manufactured by LFoundry s.r.l. (Avezzano, AQ, Italy). SiPM characteristics are measured at 77 K at the wafer level with a custom-designed probe station. As of March 2025, 1314 of the 1400 production wafers (94% of the total) for DarkSide-20k were tested. The wafer yield is 93.2±2.5%, which exceeds the 80% specification defined in the original DarkSide-20k production plan.