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Fracture Processes Observed with A Cryogenic Detector

Authors :
Urmas Nagel
M. Sisti
Franz von Feilitzsch
C. Cozzini
H. Kraus
Sergey Uchaikin
W. Seidel
P. C. F. Di Stefano
J. Marchese
O. Meier
Jussi Timonen
F. Pröbst
C. Bucci
L. Zerle
Leo Stodolsky
Jan Åström
Susan Cooper
Y. A. Ramachers
Institut de Physique Nucléaire de Lyon (IPNL)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL)
Université de Lyon-Université de Lyon-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)
Source :
Physics Letters A, Physics Letters A, Elsevier, 2006, 356, pp.262-266. ⟨10.1016/j.physleta.2006.03.059⟩
Publication Year :
2006
Publisher :
HAL CCSD, 2006.

Abstract

In the early stages of running of the CRESST dark matter search using sapphire detectors at very low temperature, an unexpectedly high rate of signal pulses appeared. Their origin was finally traced to fracture events in the sapphire due to the very tight clamping of the detectors. During extensive runs the energy and time of each event was recorded, providing large data sets for such phenomena. We believe this is the first time the energy release in fracture has been directly and accurately measured on a microscopic event-by-event basis. The energy threshold corresponds to the breaking of only a few hundred covalent bonds, a sensitivity some orders of magnitude greater than that of previous technique. We report some features of the data, including energy distributions, waiting time distributions, autocorrelations and the Hurst exponent. The energy distribution appear to follow a power law, $dN/dE\propto E^{-\beta}$, similar to the power law for earthquake magnitudes, and after appropriate translation, with a similar exponent. In the time domain,the waiting time $w$ or gap distribution between events has a power law behavior at small $w$ and an exponential fall-off at large $w,$ and can be fit $\propto w^{-\alpha}e^{-w/w_0}$. The autocorrelation function shows time correlations lasting for substantial parts of an hour. An asymmetry is found around large events, with higher count rates after, as opposed to before,the large event .<br />Comment: Fig 4 and surrounding discussion changed. References added, langauge clarified, with greater stress on sensitivity and total energy detection. Error in metadata fixed

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
03759601 and 18732429
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Physics Letters A, Physics Letters A, Elsevier, 2006, 356, pp.262-266. ⟨10.1016/j.physleta.2006.03.059⟩
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....048d556f7ffcea8d12ebde6481909909