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Nuclear recoil response of liquid xenon and its impact on solar 8B neutrino and dark matter searches
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Knowledge of the ionization and scintillation responses of liquid xenon (LXe) to nuclear recoils is crucial for LXe-based dark matter experiments. Current calibrations carry large uncertainties in the low-energy region below $\sim3$ keV$_nr$ where signals from dark matter particles of $<$10 GeV/c$^2$ masses are expected. The coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$\nu$NS) by solar $^8$B neutrinos also results in a continuum of nuclear recoil events below 3.0 keV$_{nr}$ (99\% of events), which further complicates low-mass dark matter searches in LXe experiments. In this paper, we describe a method to quantify the uncertainties of low-energy LXe responses using published calibration data, followed by case studies to evaluate the impact of yield uncertainties on ${^8}$B searches and low-mass dark matter sensitivity in a typical ton-scale LXe experiment. We conclude that naively omitting yield uncertainties leads to overly optimistic limits by factor $\sim2$ for a 6 GeV/c$^2$ WIMP mass. Future nuclear recoil light yield calibrations could allow experiments to recover this sensitivity and also improve the accuracy of solar ${^8}$B flux measurements.
- Subjects :
- High Energy Physics - Experiment
Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.2304.06142
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.022007