Tag Archives: High Energy Physics – Experiment

SRF Cavity Searches for Dark Photon Dark Matter: First Scan Results [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.09711


We present the first use of a tunable superconducting radio frequency cavity to perform a scan search for dark photon dark matter with novel data analysis strategies. We mechanically tuned the resonant frequency of a cavity embedded in the liquid helium with a temperature of $2$ K, scanning the dark photon mass over a frequency range of $1.37$ MHz centered at $1.3$ GHz. By exploiting the superconducting radio frequency cavity’s considerably high quality factors of approximately $10^{10}$, our results demonstrate the most stringent constraints to date on a substantial portion of the exclusion parameter space, particularly concerning the kinetic mixing coefficient between dark photons and electromagnetic photons $\epsilon$, yielding a value of $\epsilon < 2.2 \times 10^{-16}$.

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Z. Tang, B. Wang, Y. Chen, et. al.
Thu, 18 May 23
29/67

Comments: 11 pages, 7 figures

The uncertainties on the EFT coupling limits for direct dark matter detection experiments stemming from uncertainties of target properties [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.08991


Direct detection experiments are still one of the most promising ways to unravel the nature of dark matter. To fully understand how well these experiments constrain the dark matter interactions with the Standard Model particles, all the uncertainties affecting the calculations must be known. It is especially critical now because direct detection experiments recently moved from placing limits only on the two elementary spin independent and spin dependent operators to the complete set of possible operators coupling dark matter and nuclei in non-relativistic theory. In our work, we estimate the effect of nuclear configuration-interaction uncertainties on the exclusion bounds for one of the existing xenon-based experiments for all fifteen operators. We find that for operator number 13 the $\pm1\sigma$ uncertainty on the coupling between the dark matter and nucleon can reach more than 50% for dark matter masses between 10 and 1000 GeV. In addition, we discuss how quantum computers can help to reduce this uncertainty.

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D. Heimsoth, B. Lem, A. Suliga, et. al.
Wed, 17 May 23
49/67

Comments: 12 pages, 6 figures

Measuring $H_0$ with Spectroscopic Surveys [CEA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07977


Galaxy surveys map the three-dimensional distribution of matter in the Universe, encoding information about both the primordial cosmos and its subsequent evolution. By comparing the angular and physical scales of features in the galaxy distribution, we can compute the physical distance to the sample, and thus extract the Hubble parameter, $H_0$. In this chapter, we discuss how this is performed in practice, introducing two key standard rulers''. The first, the sound horizon at recombination, leads to baryon acoustic oscillations, and, by combining with external data from the CMB or Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, leads to a competitive $H_0$ constraint. Information can also be extracted from the physical scale of the horizon at matter-radiation equality; though somewhat less constraining, this depends on very different physics and is an important validation test of the physical model. We discuss how both such constraints can be derived (usingtemplate” and “full-shape” methodologies), and present a number of recent constraints from the literature, some of which are comparable in precision to (and independent from) Planck. Finally, we discuss future prospects for improving these constraints in the future.

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M. Ivanov and O. Philcox
Tue, 16 May 23
21/83

Comments: Invited chapter for the edited book “Hubble Constant Tension” (Eds. E. Di Valentino and D. Brout, Springer Singapore, expected in 2024)

Unraveling the puzzle of slow components in two-phase argon detectors for dark matter searches using Thick Gas Electron Multiplier [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.08083


The effect of proportional electroluminescence (EL) is used to record the primary ionization signal (S2) in the gas phase of two-phase argon detectors for dark matter particle (WIMP) searches and low-energy neutrino experiments. Our previous studies of EL time properties revealed the presence of two unusual slow components in S2 signal of two-phase argon detector, with time constants of about 4-5 $\mu$s and 50 $\mu$s. The puzzle of slow components is that their time constants and contributions to the overall signal increase with electric field (starting from a certain threshold), which cannot be explained by any of the known mechanisms of photon and electron emission in two-phase media. There are indications that these slow components result from delayed electrons, temporarily trapped during their drift in the EL gap on metastable negative argon ions of yet unknown nature. In this work, this hypothesis is convincingly confirmed by studying the time properties of electroluminescence in a Thick Gas Electron Multiplier (THGEM) coupled to the EL gap of two-phase argon detector. In particular, an unusual slow component in EL signal, similar to that observed in the EL gap, was observed in THGEM itself. In addition, with the help of THGEM operated in electron multiplication mode, the slow component was observed directly in the charge signal, unambiguously confirming the effect of trapped electrons in S2 signal. These results will help to unravel the puzzle of slow components in two-phase argon detectors and thus to understand the background in low-mass WIMP searches.

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A. Buzulutskov, E. Frolov, E. Borisova, et. al.
Tue, 16 May 23
46/83

Comments: 8 pages, 11 figures

In-orbit background simulation of a type-B CATCH satellite [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.08589


The Chasing All Transients Constellation Hunters (CATCH) space mission plans to launch three types of micro-satellites (A, B, and C). The type-B CATCH satellites are dedicated to locating transients and detecting their time-dependent energy spectra. A type-B satellite is equipped with lightweight Wolter-I X-ray optics and an array of position-sensitive multi-pixel Silicon Drift Detectors. To optimize the scientific payloads for operating properly in orbit and performing the observations with high sensitivities, this work performs an in-orbit background simulation of a type-B CATCH satellite using the Geant4 toolkit. It shows that the persistent background is dominated by the cosmic X-ray diffuse background and the cosmic-ray protons. The dynamic background is also estimated considering trapped charged particles in the radiation belts and low-energy charged particles near the geomagnetic equator, which is dominated by the incident electrons outside the aperture. The simulated persistent background within the focal spot is used to estimate the observation sensitivity, i.e. 4.22$\times$10$^{-13}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ with an exposure of 10$^{4}$ s and a Crab-like source spectrum, which can be utilized further to optimize the shielding design. The simulated in-orbit background also suggests that the magnetic diverter just underneath the optics may be unnecessary in this kind of micro-satellites, because the dynamic background induced by charged particles outside the aperture is around 3 orders of magnitude larger than that inside the aperture.

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J. Xiao, L. Qi, S. Zhang, et. al.
Tue, 16 May 23
56/83

Comments: 24 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy

Neutrino forces and experimental probes [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.08032


Neutrinos as almost massless particles could mediate long-range forces, known as neutrino forces. In this talk, I will introduce some theoretical aspects of neutrino forces, including why the potential of a neutrino force has the $1/r^{5}$ form and how it may vary under different circumstances. Experimental probes and possible implications for cosmology are also briefly discussed.

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X. Xu
Tue, 16 May 23
74/83

Comments: 6 pages, 4 figures, Contribution to the 2023 Electroweak session of the 57th Rencontres de Moriond

IceCube: Neutrinos from Active Galaxies [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.07086


The IceCube project transformed a cubic kilometer of transparent, natural Antarctic ice into a Cherenkov detector. It discovered neutrinos of TeV-PeV energy originating beyond our Galaxy with an energy flux that exceeds the one of high-energy gamma rays of extragalactic origin. Unlike at any other wavelength of light, extragalactic neutrinos outshine the nearby sources in our own Milky way. Updated measurements of the diffuse cosmic neutrino flux indicate that the high-energy gamma rays produced by the neutral pions that accompany cosmic neutrinos lose energy in the sources and are likely to be observed at MeV energy, or below. After the reanalysis of 10 years of archival data with an improved data selection and enhanced data analysis methods, the active galaxy NGC 1068 emerged as the hottest spot in the neutrino sky map. It is also the most significant source in a search at the positions of 110 preselected high-energy gamma-ray sources. Additionally, we find evidence for neutrino emission from the active galaxies PKS 1424+240 and TXS 0506+056. TXS 0506+056 had already been identified as a neutrino source in a multimessenger campaign triggered by a neutrino of 290 TeV energy and, by the independent observation of a neutrino burst in 2014 from this source in archival IceCube data. The observations point to active galaxies as the sources of cosmic neutrinos, and cosmic rays, with the gamma-ray-obscured dense cores near the supermassive black holes at their center as the sites where neutrinos originate, typically within $10\sim100$ Schwarzschild radii.

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F. Halzen
Mon, 15 May 23
26/53

Comments: contribution to the 2023 Electroweak session of the 57th Rencontres de Moriond

Evidence of Space weather in Radon Decay [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.06882


The Electron, Proton and Alpha Monitor, EPAM, located at the L1 Position approximately 1-million miles from the earth in the direction of the sun, was designed to detect fluctuations in solar output through counting the numbers of various particles hitting the detector. The EPAM detector is part of an early warning system that can alert the earth to coronal mass ejection events that can damage our electronic grids and satellite equipment. EPAM gives a real-time estimate of changes in the local solar magnetic field directed towards the earth, recorded in the fluctuations of solar particles being ejected. This paper presents an analysis of fluctuations in data taken by the Geological Survey of Israel, GSI, compared to the changes in detected numbers of protons as seen by EPAM. Surprisingly, the GSI and EPAM detectors show an unexpected correlation between the variation in count rate detected by the GSI detectors and an increased numbers of protons seen at EPAM; well above statistical significance of 5-sigma, indicating a non-random connection between the data sets. The statistically significant overlap between data taken by these two detectors, subject to very different conditions, may hint at a Primakoff mechanism whereby exotic particles, e.g. galactic Dark Matter, couple through magnetic fields to both photons and even nuclei. This work builds on an earlier paper on the observations of Radon decay and their implications for particle physics.

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C. Scarlett, E. Fischbach, B. Freeman, et. al.
Fri, 12 May 23
51/53

Comments: N/A

Flavor-dependent long-range neutrino interactions in DUNE & T2HK: alone they constrain, together they discover [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05184


Discovering new neutrino interactions would represent evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. We focus on new flavor-dependent long-range neutrino interactions mediated by ultra-light mediators, with masses below $10^{-10}$ eV, introduced by new lepton-number gauge symmetries $L_e-L_\mu$, $L_e-L_\tau$, and $L_\mu-L_\tau$. Because the interaction range is ultra-long, nearby and distant matter – primarily electrons and neutrons – in the Earth, Moon, Sun, Milky Way, and the local Universe, may source a large matter potential that modifies neutrino oscillation probabilities. The upcoming Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) and the Tokai-to-Hyper-Kamiokande (T2HK) long-baseline neutrino experiments will provide an opportunity to search for these interactions, thanks to their high event rates and well-characterized neutrino beams. We forecast their probing power. Our results reveal novel perspectives. Alone, DUNE and T2HK may strongly constrain long-range interactions, setting new limits on their coupling strength for mediators lighter than $10^{-18}$ eV. However, if the new interactions are subdominant, then both DUNE and T2HK, together, will be needed to discover them, since their combination lifts parameter degeneracies that weaken their individual sensitivity. DUNE and T2HK, especially when combined, provide a valuable opportunity to explore physics beyond the Standard Model.

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M. Singh, M. Bustamante and S. Agarwalla
Thu, 11 May 23
8/55

Comments: 35 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables, 4 appendices. Comments are welcome

Absorption of Axion Dark Matter in a Magnetized Medium [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05681


Detection of axion dark matter heavier than a meV is hindered by its small wavelength, which limits the useful volume of traditional experiments. This problem can be avoided by directly detecting in-medium excitations, whose $\sim \text{meV} – \text{eV}$ energies are decoupled from the detector size. We show that for any target inside a magnetic field, the absorption rate of electromagnetically-coupled axions into in-medium excitations is determined by the dielectric function. As a result, the plethora of candidate targets previously identified for sub-GeV dark matter searches can be repurposed as broadband axion detectors. We find that a $\text{kg} \cdot \text{yr}$ exposure with noise levels comparable to recent measurements is sufficient to probe parameter space currently unexplored by laboratory tests. Noise reduction by only a few orders of magnitude can enable sensitivity to the QCD axion in the $\sim 10 \ \text{meV} – 10 \ \text{eV}$ mass range.

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A. Berlin and T. Trickle
Thu, 11 May 23
47/55

Comments: 10 pages, 2 figures

Search for astrophysical electron antineutrinos in Super-Kamiokande with 0.01wt% gadolinium loaded water [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05135


We report the first search result for the flux of astrophysical electron antineutrinos for energies O(10) MeV in the gadolinium-loaded Super-Kamiokande (SK) detector. In June 2020, gadolinium was introduced to the ultra-pure water of the SK detector in order to detect neutrons more efficiently. In this new experimental phase, SK-Gd, we can search for electron antineutrinos via inverse beta decay with efficient background rejection and higher signal efficiency thanks to the high efficiency of the neutron tagging technique. In this paper, we report the result for the initial stage of SK-Gd with a $22.5\times552$ $\rm kton\cdot day$ exposure at 0.01% Gd mass concentration. No significant excess over the expected background in the observed events is found for the neutrino energies below 31.3 MeV. Thus, the flux upper limits are placed at the 90% confidence level. The limits and sensitivities are already comparable with the previous SK result with pure-water ($22.5 \times 2970 \rm kton\cdot day$) owing to the enhanced neutron tagging.

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M. Harada, K. Abe, C. Bronner, et. al.
Wed, 10 May 23
22/65

Comments: N/A

IceCube and the origin of ANITA-IV events [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03746


Recently, the ANITA collaboration announced the detection of new, unsettling upgoing Ultra-High-Energy (UHE) events. Understanding their origin is pressing to ensure success of the incoming UHE neutrino program. In this work, we study their internal consistency and the implications of the lack of similar events in IceCube. We introduce a generic, simple parametrization to study the compatibility between these two observatories in Standard Model-like and Beyond Standard Model scenarios: an incoming flux of particles that interact with Earth nucleons with cross section $\sigma$, producing particle showers along with long-lived particles that decay with lifetime $\tau$ and generate a shower that explains ANITA observations. We find that the ANITA angular distribution imposes significant constraints, and when including null observations from IceCube only $\tau \sim 10^{-3}$ – $10^{-2} \,\mathrm{s}$ and $\sigma \sim 10^{-33}$ – $10^{-32}\,\mathrm{cm^2}$ can explain the data. This hypothesis is testable with future IceCube data. Finally, we discuss a specific model that can realize this scenario. Our analysis highlights the importance of simultaneous observations by high-energy optical neutrino telescopes and new UHE radio detectors to uncover cosmogenic neutrinos or discover new physics.

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T. Bertólez-Martínez, C. Argüelles, I. Esteban, et. al.
Tue, 9 May 23
24/88

Comments: 11 pages, 7 figures + Appendices. Comments welcome!

Present and future constraints on flavor-dependent long-range interactions of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03675


The discovery of new, flavor-dependent neutrino interactions would provide compelling evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. We focus on interactions generated by the anomaly-free, gauged, abelian lepton-number symmetries, specifically $L_e-L_\mu$, $L_e-L_\tau$, and $L_\mu-L_\tau$, that introduce a new matter potential sourced by electrons and neutrons, potentially impacting neutrino flavor oscillations. We revisit, revamp, and improve the constraints on these interactions that can be placed via the flavor composition of the diffuse flux of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, with TeV-PeV energies, i.e., the proportion of $\nu_e$, $\nu_\mu$, and $\nu_\tau$ in the flux. Because we consider mediators of these new interactions to be ultra-light, lighter than $10^{-10}$ eV, the interaction range is ultra-long, from km to Gpc, allowing vast numbers of electrons and neutrons in celestial bodies and the cosmological matter distribution to contribute to this new potential. We leverage the present-day and future sensitivity of high-energy neutrino telescopes and of oscillation experiments to estimate the constraints that could be placed on the coupling strength of these interactions. We find that, already today, the IceCube neutrino telescope demonstrates potential to constrain flavor-dependent long-range interactions significantly better than existing constraints, motivating further analysis. We also estimate the improvement in the sensitivity due to the next-generation neutrino telescopes such as IceCube-Gen2, Baikal-GVD, KM3NeT, P-ONE, and TAMBO.

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S. Agarwalla, M. Bustamante, S. Das, et. al.
Mon, 8 May 23
49/63

Comments: 46 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables, 6 appendices. Comments are welcome

What can a GNOME do? Search targets for the Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01785


Numerous observations suggest that there exist undiscovered beyond-the-Standard-Model particles and fields. Because of their unknown nature, these exotic particles and fields could interact with Standard Model particles in many different ways and assume a variety of possible configurations. Here we present an overview of the Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches (GNOME), our ongoing experimental program designed to test a wide range of exotic physics scenarios. The GNOME experiment utilizes a worldwide network of shielded atomic magnetometers (and, more recently, comagnetometers) to search for spatially and temporally correlated signals due to torques on atomic spins from exotic fields of astrophysical origin. We survey the temporal characteristics of a variety of possible signals currently under investigation such as those from topological defect dark matter (axion-like particle domain walls), axion-like particle stars, solitons of complex-valued scalar fields (Q-balls), stochastic fluctuations of bosonic dark matter fields, a solar axion-like particle halo, and bursts of ultralight bosonic fields produced by cataclysmic astrophysical events such as binary black hole mergers.

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S. Afach, D. Tumturk, H. Bekker, et. al.
Thu, 4 May 23
55/60

Comments: 22 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Annalen der Physik

Determination of the neutron skin of $^{208}$Pb from ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2305.00015


Emergent bulk properties of matter governed by the strong nuclear force give rise to physical phenomena across vastly different scales, ranging from the shape of atomic nuclei to the masses and radii of neutron stars. They can be accessed on Earth by measuring the spatial extent of the outer skin made of neutrons that characterises the surface of heavy nuclei. The isotope $^{208}$Pb, owing to its simple structure and neutron excess, has been in this context the target of many dedicated efforts. Here, we determine the neutron skin from measurements of particle distributions and their collective flow in $^{208}$Pb+$^{208}$Pb collisions at ultrarelativistic energy performed at the Large Hadron Collider, which are sensitive to the overall size of the colliding $^{208}$Pb ions. By means of state-of-the-art global analysis tools within the hydrodynamic model of heavy-ion collisions, we infer a neutron skin $\Delta r_{np}=0.217\pm0.058$ fm, consistent with nuclear theory predictions, and competitive in accuracy with a recent determination from parity-violating asymmetries in polarised electron scattering. We establish thus a new experimental method to systematically measure neutron distributions in the ground state of atomic nuclei.

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G. Giacalone, G. Nijs and W. Schee
Tue, 2 May 23
47/57

Comments: 8 pages, 6 figures. The Trajectum code can be found at this https URL Plotting routines can be found at this http URL

Prometheus: An Open-Source Neutrino Telescope Simulation [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.14526


Neutrino telescopes are gigaton-scale neutrino detectors comprised of individual light-detection units. Though constructed from simple building blocks, they have opened a new window to the Universe and are able to probe center-of-mass energies that are comparable to those of collider experiments. \prometheus{} is a new, open-source simulation tailored for this kind of detector. Our package, which is written in a combination of \texttt{C++} and \texttt{Python} provides a balance of ease of use and performance and allows the user to simulate a neutrino telescope with arbitrary geometry deployed in ice or water. \prometheus{} simulates the neutrino interactions in the volume surrounding the detector, computes the light yield of the hadronic shower and the out-going lepton, propagates the photons in the medium, and records their arrival times and position in user-defined regions. Finally, \prometheus{} events are serialized into a \texttt{parquet} file, which is a compact and interoperational file format that allows prompt access to the events for further analysis.

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J. Lazar, S. Meighen-Berger, C. Haack, et. al.
Mon, 1 May 23
41/51

Comments: Code can be found here: this https URL 17 pages. 9 figures. Appendix with detailed examples

The Light Source of the TRIDENT Pathfinder Experiment [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.14608


In September 2021, a site scouting mission known as the TRIDENT pathfinder experiment (TRIDENT EXplorer, T-REX for short) was conducted in the South China Sea with the goal of envisaging a next-generation multi-cubic-kilometer neutrino telescope. One of the main tasks is to measure the \textit{in-situ} optical properties of seawater at depths between $2800~\mathrm{m}$ and $3500~\mathrm{m}$, where the neutrino telescope will be instrumented. To achieve this, we have developed a light emitter module equipped with a clock synchronization system to serve as the light source, which could be operated in pulsing and steady modes. Two light receiver modules housing both photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and cameras are employed to detect the photons emitted by the light source. This paper presents the instrumentation of the light source in T-REX, including its design, calibration, and performance.

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W. Li, X. Liu, W. Tian, et. al.
Mon, 1 May 23
49/51

Comments: N/A

Direct detection of finite-size dark matter via electron recoil [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.13243


In direct dark matter (DM) detection via scattering off the electrons, the momentum transfer plays a crucial role. Previous work showed that for self-interacting DM, if the DM particle has a size (the so-called puffy DM), the radius effect could dominate the momentum transfer and become another source of velocity dependence for self-scattering cross section. In this work we investigate the direct detection of puffy DM particles with different radii through electron recoil. We find that comparing with the available experimental exclusion limits dominated by the mediator effect for XENON10, XENON100 and XENON1T, the constraints on the puffy DM-electron scattering cross-section become much weaker for large radius DM particles. For small-radius DM particles, the constraints remain similar to the point-like DM case.

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W. Wang, W. Xu and J. Yang
Thu, 27 Apr 23
75/78

Comments: 11 pages, 2 figures

Production rates of dark photons and $Z'$ in the Sun and stellar cooling bounds [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.12907


Light weakly interacting particles could be copiously produced in the Sun which, as a well-understood star, could provide severe constraints on such new physics. In this work, we calculate the solar production rates of light gauge bosons (e.g. dark photon) arising from various $U(1)$ extensions of the standard model. It is known that the dark photon production rate is suppressed by the dark photon mass if it is well below the plasmon mass of the medium. We show that for more general $U(1)$ gauge bosons, this suppression is absent if the couplings are not in alignment with those of the photon. We investigate a few frequently discussed $U(1)$ models including $B-L$, $L_{\mu}-L_{\tau}$, and $L_{e}-L_{\mu(\tau)}$, and derive the stellar cooling bounds for these models.

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S. Li and X. Xu
Wed, 26 Apr 23
22/62

Comments: 22 pages, 4 figures. Comments are welcome

Type-II Majoron Dark Matter [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.12527


We discuss in detail the possibility that the “type-II majoron” — that is, the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson that arises in the context of the type-II seesaw mechanism if the lepton number is spontaneously broken by an additional singlet scalar — account for the dark matter (DM) observed in the universe. We study the requirements the model’s parameters have to fulfill in order to reproduce the measured DM relic abundance through two possible production mechanisms in the early universe, freeze-in and misalignment, both during a standard radiation-dominated era and early matter domination. We then study possible signals of type-II majoron DM and the present and expected constraints on the parameter space that can be obtained from cosmological observations, direct detection experiments, and present and future searches for decaying DM at neutrino telescopes and cosmic-ray experiments. We find that — depending on the majoron mass, the production mechanism, and the value of the vacuum expectation value of the type-II triplet — all of the three decay modes (photons, electrons, neutrinos) of majoron DM particles can yield observable signals at future indirect searches for DM. Furthermore, in a corner of the parameter space, detection of majoron DM is possible through electron recoil at running and future direct detection experiments.

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C. Biggio, L. Calibbi, T. Ota, et. al.
Wed, 26 Apr 23
52/62

Comments: 22 pages + appendices and bibliography, 6 figures

Gas selection for Xe-based LCP-GEM detectors onboard the CubeSat X-ray observatory NinjaSat [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.08321


We present a gas selection for Xe-based gas electron multiplier (GEM) detectors, Gas Multiplier Counters (GMCs) onboard the CubeSat X-ray observatory NinjaSat. To achieve an energy bandpass of 2-50 keV, we decided to use a Xe-based gas mixture at a pressure of 1.2 atm that is sensitive to high-energy X-rays. In addition, an effective gain of over 300 is required for a single GEM so that the 2 keV X-ray signal can be sufficiently larger than the electrical noise. At first, we measured the effective gains of GEM in nine Xe-based gas mixtures (combinations of Xe, Ar, CO2, CH4, and dimethyl ether; DME) at 1.0 atm. The highest gains were obtained with Xe/Ar/DME mixtures, while relatively lower gains were obtained with Xe/Ar/CO2, Xe/Ar/CH4, and Xe+quencher mixtures. Based on these results, we selected the Xe/Ar/DME (75%/24%/1%) mixture at 1.2 atm as the sealed gas for GMC. Then we investigated the dependence of an effective gain on the electric fields in the drift and induction gaps ranging from 100-650 V cm$^{-1}$ and 500-5000 V cm$^{-1}$, respectively, in the selected gas mixture. The effective gain weakly depended on the drift field while it was almost linearly proportional to the induction field: 2.4 times higher at 5000 V cm$^{-1}$ than at 1000 V cm$^{-1}$. With the optimal induction and drift fields, the flight model GMC achieves an effective gain of 460 with an applied GEM voltage of 590 V.

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T. Takeda, T. Tamagawa, T. Enoto, et. al.
Tue, 18 Apr 23
34/80

Comments: 7th international conference on Micro Pattern Gaseous Detectors 2022 – MPGD2022, 3 pages, 2 figures

CAPP Axion Search Experiments with Quantum Noise Limited Amplifiers [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.07222


The axion is expected to solve the strong CP problem of quantum chromodynamics and is one of the leading candidates for dark matter. CAPP in South Korea has several axion search experiments based on cavity haloscopes in the frequency range of 1-6 GHz. The main effort focuses on operation of the experiments with the highest possible sensitivity. It requires maintenance of the haloscopes at the lowest physical temperature in the range of mK and usage of low noise components to amplify the weak axion signal. We report development and operation of low noise amplifiers for 5 haloscope experiments targeting at different frequency ranges. The amplifiers show noise temperatures approaching the quantum limit.

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S. Uchaikin, B. Ivanov, J. Kim, et. al.
Mon, 17 Apr 23
40/51

Comments: 6 pages, 7 figures, 29th International Conference on Low Temperature Physics, August 18-24, 2022, Sapporo, Japan

Stellar Signals of a Baryon-Number-Violating Long-Range Force [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.06071


We entertain the novel possibility that long range forces may lead to violations of accidental symmetries, in particular baryon number. Employing an ultralight scalar, with a mass $\ll$ eV, we illustrate that this scenario can lead to vastly disparate nucleon lifetimes, in different astronomical objects. Such a long range interaction can yield a number of potentially observable effects, such as a flux of neutrinos at $\gtrsim 10$ MeV from the Sun and heating of old neutron stars. We examine the prospects for constraining this scenario, with current and future astrophysical data, and find that neutron star heating provides the strongest present and near term bounds. Simple extensions of our setup allow for the ultralight scalar to constitute the dark matter of the Universe. This suggests that matter-enhanced baryon number violation can be a signal of ultralight dark matter, which has apparently been overlooked, so far.

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H. Davoudiasl
Fri, 14 Apr 23
53/64

Comments: 7 pages, 1 figure

Updated Constraints and Future Prospects on Majoron Dark Matter [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04430


Majorons are (pseudo-)Nambu-Goldstone bosons associated with lepton number symmetry breaking due to the Majorana mass term of neutrinos introduced in the seesaw mechanism. They are good dark matter candidates since their lifetime is suppressed by the lepton number breaking scale. We update constraints and discuss future prospects on majoron dark matter in the singlet majoron models based on neutrino, gamma-ray, and cosmic-ray telescopes in the mass region of MeV–10 TeV.

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K. Akita and M. Niibo
Wed, 12 Apr 23
3/45

Comments: 25 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables

Applications of the gamma/hadron discriminator $LCm$ to realistic air shower array experiments [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.05348


In this article, it is shown that the $C_k$ and $LCm$ variables, recently introduced as an effective way to discriminate gamma and proton-induced showers in large wide-field gamma-ray observatories, can be generalised to be used in arrays of different detectors and variable fill factors. In particular, the $C_k$ profile discrimination capabilities are evaluated for scintillator and water Cherenkov detector arrays.

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R. Conceição, P. Costa, L. Gibilisco, et. al.
Wed, 12 Apr 23
23/45

Comments: N/A

There and back again: Solar cycle effects in future measurements of low-energy atmospheric neutrinos [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04689


We study the impact of time-dependent solar cycles in the atmospheric neutrino rate at DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande (HK), focusing in particular on the flux below 1 GeV. Including the effect of neutrino oscillations for the upward-going component that travels through the Earth, we find that across the solar cycle the amplitude of time variation is about $\pm5\%$ at DUNE, and $\pm 1\%$ at HK. At DUNE, the ratio of up/down-going events ranges from 0.45 to 0.85, while at HK, it ranges from 0.75 to 1.5. Over the 11-year solar cycle, we find that the estimated statistical significance for observing time modulation of atmospheric neutrinos is $4.8\sigma$ for DUNE and $2.0\sigma$ for HK. Flux measurements at both DUNE and HK will be important for understanding systematics in the low-energy atmospheric flux as well as for understanding the effect of oscillations in low-energy atmospheric neutrinos.

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K. Kelly, P. Machado, N. Mishra, et. al.
Tue, 11 Apr 23
15/63

Comments: 6 pages (including one appendix), 5 figures. Comments welcome

Azimuthal fluctuations and number of muons at the ground in muon-depleted proton air showers at PeV energies [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.02988


Muon counting is an effective strategy for discriminating between gamma and hadron-initiated air showers. However, their detection, which requires shielded detectors, is highly costly and almost impossible to implement in large ${\rm km^2}$ environmentally sensitive areas. This work shows that the gamma/hadron discriminators, based on the new $LCm$ variable and the number of muons, have equivalent proton rejection levels at the PeV energies. It is, therefore, possible to build, at an affordable cost, a large, high-performant, wide field-of-view gamma-ray observatory.

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A. Bakalová, R. Conceição, L. Gibilisco, et. al.
Fri, 7 Apr 23
10/50

Comments: N/A

Right-Handed Neutrino Dark Matter with Forbidden Annihilation [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.02997


The seesaw mechanism with three right-handed neutrinos has one as a well-motivated dark matter candidate if stable and the other two can explain baryon asymmetry via the thermal leptogenesis scenario. We explore the possibility of introducing additional particles to make the right-handed neutrino dark matter in thermal equilibrium and freeze out through a forbidden annihilation channel. Nowadays in the Universe, this forbidden channel can be reactivated by a strong gravitational potential such as the supermassive black hole in our galaxy center. The Fermi-LAT gamma ray data and dark matter relic density require this right-handed neutrino dark matter to have mass below $100\,$GeV and the existence of an additional boson $\phi$ that can be tested at future lepton colliders.

Read this paper on arXiv…

Y. Cheng, S. Ge, J. Sheng, et. al.
Fri, 7 Apr 23
17/50

Comments: 7 pages, 1 figures

The indication for $^{40}$K geo-antineutrino flux with Borexino phase-III data [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.02747


We provide the indication of high flux of $^{40}$K geo-antineutrino and geo-neutrino ($^{40}$K-geo-($\bar{\nu} + \nu$)) with Borexino Phase III data. This result was obtained by introducing a new source of single events, namely $^{40}$K-geo-($\bar{\nu} + \nu$) scattering on electrons, in multivariate fit analysis of Borexino Phase III data. Simultaneously we obtained the count rates of events from $^7$Be, $pep$ and CNO solar neutrinos. These count rates are consistent with the prediction of the Low metallicity Sun model SSM B16-AGSS09. MC pseudo-experiments showed that the case of High metallicity Sun and absence of $^{40}$K-geo-($\bar{\nu} + \nu$) can not imitate the result of multivariate fit analysis of Borexino Phase III data with introducing $^{40}$K-geo-($\bar{\nu} + \nu$) events. We also provide arguments for the high abundance of potassium in the Earth.

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L. Bezrukov, I. Karpikov and V. Sinev
Fri, 7 Apr 23
22/50

Comments: 17 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2202.08531

Testing generalized neutrino interactions with PTOLEMY [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.02505


There are several unanswered questions regarding neutrinos which pave the way for physics beyond the standard model (SM) of particle physics. Generalized interactions of neutrinos provide a way to characterize these effects in a manner which is even more general than the oft-studied non-standard neutrino interactions. These interactions are described by higher dimensional operators maintaining the SM gauge symmetries. On the other hand cosmic neutrino background, although yet to be detected directly, is a robust prediction of the SM and the standard cosmology. We perform a global analysis of the relevant generalized neutrino interactions which are expressly relevant for the proposed cosmic neutrino detector PTOLEMY. The electron spectrum due to the capture of cosmic neutrinos on radioactive tritium gets modified due to the presence of these generalized interactions. We also show how the differential electron spectrum is sensitive to the finite experimental resolution, mass of the lightest neutrino eigenstate, the strength of these interactions and the ordering of neutrino mass.

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I. Banerjee, U. Dey, N. Nath, et. al.
Thu, 6 Apr 23
44/76

Comments: 22 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables

Measurement of the cosmic p+He energy spectrum from 46 GeV to 316 TeV with the DAMPE space mission [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00137


Recent observations of the light component of the cosmic-ray spectrum have revealed unexpected features that motivate further and more precise measurements up to the highest energies. The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) is a satellite-based cosmic-ray experiment that is operational since December 2015, continuously collecting data on high-energy cosmic particles with very good statistics, energy resolution, and particle identification capabilities. In this work, the latest measurements of the energy spectrum of proton+helium in the energy range from 46 GeV to 316 TeV are presented. Among the most distinctive features of the spectrum, a spectral hardening at $\sim$600 GeV has been observed, along with a softening at $\sim$29 TeV measured with a 6.6$\sigma$ significance. Moreover, by measuring the energy spectrum up to 316 TeV, a strong link is established between space- and ground-based experiments, also suggesting the presence of a second hardening at $\sim$150 TeV.

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D. Collaboration
Tue, 4 Apr 23
30/111

Comments: submitted to PRL

Solar radio emissions and ultralight dark matter [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.01056


Ultralight axions and dark photons are well-motivated dark matter candidates. Inside the plasma, once the mass of ultralight dark matter candidates equals the plasma frequency, they can resonantly convert into electromagnetic waves, due to the coupling between the ultralight dark matter particles and the standard model photons. The converted electromagnetic waves are monochromatic. In this article, we review the development of using radio detectors to search for ultralight dark matter conversions in the solar corona and solar wind plasma.

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H. An, S. Ge and J. Liu
Tue, 4 Apr 23
51/111

Comments: 13 pages, 3 figures. An invited review for the special issue “Solar Radio Emissions” in the journal Universe

Performance of the MALTA Telescope [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.01104


MALTA is part of the Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel sensors designed in Tower 180nm CMOS imaging technology. A custom telescope with six MALTA planes has been developed for test beam campaigns at SPS, CERN, with the ability to host several devices under test. The telescope system has a dedicated custom readout, online monitoring integrated into DAQ with realtime hit map, time distribution and event hit multiplicity. It hosts a dedicated fully configurable trigger system enabling to trigger on coincidence between telescope planes and timing reference from a scintillator. The excellent time resolution performance allows for fast track reconstruction, due to the possibility to retain a low hit multiplicity per event which reduces the combinatorics. This paper reviews the architecture of the system and its performance during the 2021 and 2022 test beam campaign at the SPS North Area.

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M. Rijnbach, G. Gustavino, P. Allport, et. al.
Tue, 4 Apr 23
85/111

Comments: N/A

A Long-Baseline Atom Interferometer at CERN: Conceptual Feasibility Study [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00614


We present results from exploratory studies, supported by the Physics Beyond Colliders (PBC) Study Group, of the suitability of a CERN site and its infrastructure for hosting a vertical atom interferometer (AI) with a baseline of about 100 m. We first review the scientific motivations for such an experiment to search for ultralight dark matter and measure gravitational waves, and then outline the general technical requirements for such an atom interferometer, using the AION-100 project as an example. We present a possible CERN site in the PX46 access shaft to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), including the motivations for this choice and a description of its infrastructure. We then assess its compliance with the technical requirements of such an experiment and what upgrades may be needed. We analyse issues related to the proximity of the LHC machine and its ancillary hardware and present a preliminary safety analysis and the required mitigation measures and infrastructure modifications. In conclusion, we identify primary cost drivers and describe constraints on the experimental installation and operation schedules arising from LHC operation. We find no technical obstacles: the CERN site is a very promising location for an AI experiment with a vertical baseline of about 100 m.

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G. Arduini, L. Badurina, K. Balazs, et. al.
Tue, 4 Apr 23
100/111

Comments: 51 pages, 39 figures, version with higher resolution figures available from this https URL

Energy flow in Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray interactions as a probe of thermalization and potential solution to the Muon puzzle [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00294


Indicators that illustrate the formation of a strongly interacting thermalized matter of partons have been observed in high-multiplicity proton-proton, proton-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC energies. Strangeness enhancement in such ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions is considered to be a consequence of this thermalized phase, known as quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Simultaneously, proper modeling of hadronic energy fraction in interactions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) has been proposed as a solution for the muon puzzle. These interactions have center-of-mass collision energies in the order of LHC or higher, indicating that the possibility of a thermalized partonic state cannot be overlooked in UHECR-air interactions. This work investigates the hadronic energy fraction and strangeness enhancement to explore QGP-like phenomena in UHECR-air interactions using various high-energy hadronic models. A thermalized system with statistical hadronization is considered through the EPOS LHC model, while PYTHIA 8, QGSJET II-04, and SYBILL 2.3d consider string fragmentation in the absence of any thermalization. We have found that EPOS LHC gives a better description of strangeness enhancement as compared to other models. We conclude that adequately treating all the relevant effects and further retuning the models is necessary to explain the observed effects.

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R. Scaria, S. Deb, C. Singh, et. al.
Tue, 4 Apr 23
109/111

Comments: 7 pages and 6 figures. Submitted for publication

Probing darK Matter Using free leptONs: PKMUON [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.18117


We propose a new method to detect sub-GeV dark matter, through their scatterings from free leptons and the resulting kinematic shifts. Specially, such an experiment can detect dark matter interacting solely with muons. The experiment proposed here is to directly probe muon-philic dark matter, in a model-independent way. Its complementarity with the muon on target proposal, is similar to, e.g. XENON/PandaX and ATLAS/CMS on dark matter searches. Moreover, our proposal can work better for relatively heavy dark matter such as in the sub-GeV region. We start with a small device of a size around 0.1 to 1 meter, using atmospheric muons to set up a prototype. Within only one year of operation, the sensitivity on cross section of dark matter scattering with muons can already reach $\sigma_D\sim 10^{-19 (-20,\,-18)}\rm{cm}^{2}$ for a dark mater $\rm{M_D}=100\, (10,\,1000)$ MeV. We can then interface the device with a high intensity muon beam of $10^{12}$/bunch. Within one year, the sensitivity can reach $\sigma_D\sim 10^{-27 (-28,\,-26)}\rm{cm}^{2}$ for $\rm{M_D}=100\, (10,\,1000)$ MeV.

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A. Ruzi, C. Zhou, X. Sun, et. al.
Mon, 3 Apr 23
31/53

Comments: 5 pages, 3 figures, muons enlighten darkness

Exploring QCD matter in extreme conditions with Machine Learning [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.15136


In recent years, machine learning has emerged as a powerful computational tool and novel problem-solving perspective for physics, offering new avenues for studying strongly interacting QCD matter properties under extreme conditions. This review article aims to provide an overview of the current state of this intersection of fields, focusing on the application of machine learning to theoretical studies in high energy nuclear physics. It covers diverse aspects, including heavy ion collisions, lattice field theory, and neutron stars, and discuss how machine learning can be used to explore and facilitate the physics goals of understanding QCD matter. The review also provides a commonality overview from a methodology perspective, from data-driven perspective to physics-driven perspective. We conclude by discussing the challenges and future prospects of machine learning applications in high energy nuclear physics, also underscoring the importance of incorporating physics priors into the purely data-driven learning toolbox. This review highlights the critical role of machine learning as a valuable computational paradigm for advancing physics exploration in high energy nuclear physics.

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K. Zhou, L. Wang, L. Pang, et. al.
Tue, 28 Mar 23
59/81

Comments: 146 pages,53 figures

First Dark Matter Search with Nuclear Recoils from the XENONnT Experiment [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14729


We report on the first search for nuclear recoils from dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with the XENONnT experiment which is based on a two-phase time projection chamber with a sensitive liquid xenon mass of $5.9$~t. During the approximately 1.1 tonne-year exposure used for this search, the intrinsic $^{85}$Kr and $^{222}$Rn concentrations in the liquid target were reduced to unprecedentedly low levels, giving an electronic recoil background rate of $(15.8\pm1.3)~\mathrm{events}/(\mathrm{t\cdot y \cdot keV})$ in the region of interest. A blind analysis of nuclear recoil events with energies between $3.3$~keV and $60.5$~keV finds no significant excess. This leads to a minimum upper limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section of $2.58\times 10^{-47}~\mathrm{cm}^2$ for a WIMP mass of $28~\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ at $90\%$ confidence level. Limits for spin-dependent interactions are also provided. Both the limit and the sensitivity for the full range of WIMP masses analyzed here improve on previous results obtained with the XENON1T experiment for the same exposure.

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X. Collaboration, E. Aprile, K. Abe, et. al.
Tue, 28 Mar 23
60/81

Comments: Limit points are included in the submission file

New Resonances of Supernova Neutrinos in Twisting Magnetic Fields [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.13572


We investigate the effect of resonant spin conversion of the neutrinos induced by the geometrical phase in a twisting magnetic field. We find that the geometrical phase originating from the rotation of the transverse magnetic field along the neutrino trajectory can trigger a new resonant spin conversion of Dirac neutrinos inside the supernova, even if there were no such transitions in the fixed-direction field case. We have shown that even though resonant spin conversion is too weak to affect solar neutrinos, it could have a remarkable consequence on supernova neutronization bursts where very intense magnetic fields are quite likely. We demonstrate how the flavor composition at Earth can be used as a probe to establish the presence of non-negligible magnetic moments, potentially down to $10^{-15}~\mu_B$ in upcoming neutrino experiments like the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), and the Hyper-Kamiokande (HK). Possible implications are analyzed.

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S. Jana and Y. Porto
Mon, 27 Mar 23
7/59

Comments: 5 pages + references, 3 figures

Borexino's search for low-energy neutrinos associated with gravitational wave events from GWTC-3 database [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.13876


The search for neutrino events in correlation with gravitational wave (GW) events for three observing runs (O1, O2 and O3) from 09/2015 to 03/2020 has been performed using the Borexino data-set of the same period. We have searched for signals of neutrino-electron scattering with visible energies above 250 keV within a time window of 1000 s centered at the detection moment of a particular GW event. Two types of incoming neutrino spectra were considered: the mono-energetic line and the spectrum expected from supernovae. The same spectra were considered for electron antineutrinos detected through inverse beta-decay (IBD) reaction. GW candidates originated by merging binaries of black holes (BHBH), neutron stars (NSNS) and neutron star and black hole (NSBH) were analysed separately. In total, follow-ups of 74 out of 93 gravitational waves reported in the GWTC-3 catalog were analyzed and no statistically significant excess over the background was observed. As a result, the strongest upper limits on GW-associated neutrino and antineutrino fluences for all flavors (\nu_e, \nu_\mu, \nu_\tau) have been obtained in the (0.5 – 5.0) MeV neutrino energy range.

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B. Basilico, G. Bellini, J. Benziger, et. al.
Mon, 27 Mar 23
12/59

Comments: 13 pages, 8 figures

Alignment of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) in space [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.14072


The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a precision particle physics detector operating at an altitude of 410 km aboard the International Space Station. The AMS silicon tracker, together with the permanent magnet, measures the rigidity (momentum/charge) of cosmic rays in the range from 0.5 GV to several TV. In order to have accurate rigidity measurements, the positions of more than 2000 tracker modules have to be determined at the micron level by an alignment procedure. The tracker was first aligned using the 400 GeV/c proton test beam at CERN and then re-aligned using cosmic-ray events after being launched into space. A unique method to align the permanent magnetic spectrometer for a space experiment is presented. The developed underlying mathematical algorithm is discussed in detail.

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Q. Yan and V. Choutko
Mon, 27 Mar 23
38/59

Comments: N/A

Inferring astrophysical neutrino sources from the Glashow resonance [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.13706


We infer the ultrahigh energy neutrino source by using the Glashow resonance candidate event recently identified by the IceCube Observatory. For the calculation of the cross section for the Glashow resonance, we incorporate both the atomic Doppler broadening effect and initial state radiation $\overline{\nu}^{}{e} e^- \to W^- \gamma$, which correct the original cross section considerably. Using available experimental information, we have set a generic constraint on the $\overline{\nu}^{}{e}$ fraction of astrophysical neutrinos, which excludes the $\mu$-damped ${\rm p}\gamma$ source around $2\sigma$ confidence level. While a weak preference has been found for the pp source, next-generation measurements will be able to distinguish between ideal pp and p$\gamma$ sources with a high significance assuming an optimistic single power-law neutrino spectrum.

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G. Huang, M. Lindner and N. Volmer
Mon, 27 Mar 23
42/59

Comments: 10 pages, 4 figures

Electron transport measurements in liquid xenon with Xenoscope, a large-scale DARWIN demonstrator [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.13963


There is a compelling physics case for a large, xenon-based underground detector devoted to dark matter and other rare-event searches. A two-phase time projection chamber as inner detector allows for a good energy resolution, a three-dimensional position determination of the interaction site and particle discrimination. To study challenges related to the construction and operation of a multi-tonne scale detector, we have designed and constructed a vertical, full-scale demonstrator for the DARWIN experiment at the University of Zurich. Here we present first results from a several-months run with 343 kg of xenon and electron drift lifetime and transport measurements with a 53 cm tall purity monitor immersed in the cryogenic liquid. After 88 days of continuous purification, the electron lifetime reached a value of 664(23) microseconds. We measured the drift velocity of electrons for electric fields in the range (25–75) V/cm, and found values consistent with previous measurements. We also calculated the longitudinal diffusion constant of the electron cloud in the same field range, and compared with previous data, as well as with predictions from an empirical model.

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L. Baudis, Y. Biondi, A. Bismark, et. al.
Mon, 27 Mar 23
48/59

Comments: N/A

Do the CMB Temperature Fluctuations Conserve Parity? [CEA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.12106


Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) have cemented the notion that the large-scale Universe is both statistically homogeneous and isotropic. But is it invariant also under mirror reflections? To probe this we require parity-sensitive statistics: for scalar observables, the simplest is the four-point function. We make the first measurements of the parity-odd CMB trispectrum, focusing on the large-scale ($2<\ell<510$) temperature anisotropies measured by Planck. This is facilitated by new maximum-likelihood estimators for binned correlators, which account for mask convolution and leakage between even- and odd-parity components, and achieve optimal variances within $\approx 20\%$. We perform a blind test for parity violation by comparing a $\chi^2$ statistic from Planck to theoretical expectations, using two suites of simulations to account for the possible likelihood non-Gaussianity and residual foregrounds. We find consistency at the $\approx 0.5\sigma$ level, yielding no evidence for parity violation, with roughly $250\times$ the squared sensitivity of large scale structure measurements (according to mode-counting arguments), and with the advantage of linear physics, Gaussian statistics, and accurate mocks. The measured trispectra can be used to constrain physical models of inflationary parity violation, including Ghost Inflation, Cosmological Collider scenarios, and Chern-Simons gauge fields. Considering eight such models, we find no evidence for new physics, with a maximal detection significance of $2.0\sigma$. These results suggest that the recent parity excesses seen in the BOSS galaxy survey are not primordial in origin. Tighter constraints can be wrought by including smaller scales (though rotational invariance washes out the flat-sky limit) and adding polarization data.

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O. Philcox
Thu, 23 Mar 23
16/67

Comments: 7+12 pages, 4+5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. Code available at this https URL

Relic gravitons and high-frequency detectors [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.11928


Cosmic gravitons are expected in the MHz-GHz regions that are currently unreachable by the operating wide-band interferometers and where various classes of electromechanical detectors have been proposed through the years. The minimal chirp amplitude detectable by these instruments is often set on the basis of the sensitivities reachable by the detectors currently operating in the audio band. By combining the observations of the pulsar timing arrays, the limits from wide-band detectors and the other phenomenological bounds we show that this requirement is far too generous and even misleading since the actual detection of relic gravitons well above the kHz would demand chirp and spectral amplitudes that are ten or even fifteen orders of magnitude smaller than the ones currently achievable in the audio band, for the same classes of stochastic sources. We then examine more closely the potential high-frequency signals and show that the sensitivity in the chirp and spectral amplitudes must be even smaller than the ones suggested by the direct and indirect constraints on the cosmic gravitons. We finally analyze the high-frequency detectors in the framework of Hanbury-Brown Twiss interferometry and argue that they are actually more essential than the ones operating in the audio band (i.e. between few Hz and few kHz) if we want to investigate the quantumness of the relic gravitons and their associated second-order correlation effects. We suggest, in particular, how the statistical properties of thermal and non-thermal gravitons can be distinguished by studying the corresponding second-order interference effects.

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M. Giovannini
Wed, 22 Mar 23
22/68

Comments: 42 pages, 13 figures

Imaging effects due to pixel distortions in CdZnTe (CZT) detectors — results from the HREXI Calibration Facility (HCF) [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10075


ProtoEXIST2 (P2) was a prototype imaging X-ray detector plane developed for wide-field Time Domain Astrophysics (TDA) in the 5 – 200 keV energy band. It was composed of an 8 $\times$ 8 array of 5 mm thick, 2cm $\times$ 2cm pixelated (32 $\times$ 32) CdZnTe (CZT) detectors with a 0.6 mm pitch that utilize the NuSTAR ASIC(NuASIC) for readout. During the initial detector development process leading up to post-flight examination of the entire detector plane, distortions in expected pixel positions and shapes were observed in a significant fraction of the detectors. The HREXI (High Resolution Energetic X-ray Imager) Calibration Facility (HCF) was designed and commissioned to improve upon these early experiments and to rapidly map out and characterize pixel non-uniformities and defects within CZT detector planes at resolutions down to 50 $\rm \mu$m. Using this facility, the sub-pixel level detector response of P2 was measured at 100 $\rm \mu$m resolution and analyzed to extract and evaluate the area and profile of individual pixels, their morphology across the entire P2 detector plane for comparison with previous measurements and to provide additional characterization. In this article, we evaluate the imaging performance of a coded-aperture telescope using the observed pixel morphology for P2 detectors. This investigation will serve as an initial guide for detector selection in the development of HREXI detector planes, for the future implementation of the 4pi X-Ray Imaging Observatory (4piXIO) mission which aims to provide simultaneous and continuous imaging of the full sky ($\rm 4\pi$ sr) in the 3-200 keV energy band with $\rm \simeq$ 2 arcmin angular resolution and $\simeq$ 10 arcsec source localization, as well as other, future coded-aperture instruments.

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A. Basak, B. Allen, J. Hong, et. al.
Mon, 20 Mar 23
49/51

Comments: N/A

Supernova model discrimination with a kilotonne-scale Gd-H$_{2}$O Cherenkov detector [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.08079


The supernova model discrimination capabilities of the WATCHMAN detector concept are explored. This cylindrical kilotonne-scale water Cherenkov detector design has been developed to detect reactor antineutrinos through inverse $\beta$-decay for non-proliferation applications but also has the ability to observe antineutrino bursts of core-collapse supernovae within our galaxy. Detector configurations with sizes ranging from 16 m to 22 m tank diameter and 10% to 20% PMT coverage are used to compare the expected observable antineutrino spectra based on the Nakazato, Vartanyan and Warren supernova models. These spectra are then compared to each other with a fixed event count of 100 observed inverse $\beta$-decay events and a benchmark supernova at 10 kpc distance from Earth. By comparing the expected spectra, each detector configuration’s ability to distinguish is evaluated. This analysis then demonstrates that the detector design is capable of meaningful event discrimination (95+% accuracy) with 100 observed supernova antineutrino events in any configuration. Furthermore, a larger tank configuration can maintain this performance at 10 kpc distance and above, indicating that overall target mass is the main factor for such a detector’s discrimination capabilities.

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Y. Schnellbach, J. Migenda, A. Carroll, et. al.
Fri, 20 Jan 23
42/72

Comments: 12 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables. For submission to JCAP

On geometrical interpretation of alignment phenomenon [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07975


The observed alignment of spots in the x-ray films in cosmic ray emulsion experiments is analyzed and interpreted in the framework of geometrical approach. It is shown that the high degree of alignment can appear partly due to the selection procedure of most energetic particles itself and the threshold on the energy deposition together with the transverse momentum conservation.

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I. Lokhtin, A. Nikolskii and A. Snigirev
Fri, 20 Jan 23
58/72

Comments: 6 pages, 5 figures

Mineral Detection of Neutrinos and Dark Matter. A Whitepaper [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07118


Minerals are solid state nuclear track detectors – nuclear recoils in a mineral leave latent damage to the crystal structure. Depending on the mineral and its temperature, the damage features are retained in the material from minutes (in low-melting point materials such as salts at a few hundred degrees C) to timescales much larger than the 4.5 Gyr-age of the Solar System (in refractory materials at room temperature). The damage features from the $O(50)$ MeV fission fragments left by spontaneous fission of $^{238}$U and other heavy unstable isotopes have long been used for fission track dating of geological samples. Laboratory studies have demonstrated the readout of defects caused by nuclear recoils with energies as small as $O(1)$ keV. This whitepaper discusses a wide range of possible applications of minerals as detectors for $E_R \gtrsim O(1)$ keV nuclear recoils: Using natural minerals, one could use the damage features accumulated over $O(10)$ Myr$-O(1)$ Gyr to measure astrophysical neutrino fluxes (from the Sun, supernovae, or cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere) as well as search for Dark Matter. Using signals accumulated over months to few-years timescales in laboratory-manufactured minerals, one could measure reactor neutrinos or use them as Dark Matter detectors, potentially with directional sensitivity. Research groups in Europe, Asia, and America have started developing microscopy techniques to read out the $O(1) – O(100)$ nm damage features in crystals left by $O(0.1) – O(100)$ keV nuclear recoils. We report on the status and plans of these programs. The research program towards the realization of such detectors is highly interdisciplinary, combining geoscience, material science, applied and fundamental physics with techniques from quantum information and Artificial Intelligence.

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S. Baum, P. Stengel, N. Abe, et. al.
Thu, 19 Jan 23
21/100

Comments: 113 pages, many pictures of tracks

The Use of the Signal at an Optimal Distance from the Shower Core as a Surrogate for Shower Size [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.07410


When analysing data from air-shower arrays, it has become common practice to use the signal at a considerable distance from the shower axis ($r_\text{opt}$) as a surrogate for the size of the shower. This signal, $S(r_\text{opt}$), can then be related to the primary energy in a variety of ways. After a brief review of the reasons behind the introduction of $r_\text{opt}$ laid out in a seminal paper by Hillas in 1969, it will be shown that $r_\text{opt}$, is a more effective tool when detectors are laid out on a triangular grid than when detectors are deployed on a square grid. This result may have implications for explaining the differences between the flux observed by the Auger and Telescope collaborations above 10\,EeV and should be kept in mind when designing new shower arrays.

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Q. Luce, D. Schmidt, O. Deligny, et. al.
Thu, 19 Jan 23
61/100

Comments: 8 pages, 4 figures

Performance of the RF-detectors of the Astroneu Array [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.06867


Since 2014, the University Campus of the Hellenic Open University (HOU) hosts the Astroneu array which is dedicated to the detection of Extensive Air Showers (EAS) induced by high energy Cosmic Rays (CR). The Astroneu array incorporates 9 large particle scintillation detectors and 6 antennas sensitive in the Radio Frequency (RF) range 1-200 MHz. The detectors are adjusted in three autonomous stations operating in an environment with strong electromagnetic background. As shown by previous studies, EAS radio detection in such environments is possible using innovative noise rejection methods, as well as advanced analysis techniques. In this work, we present the analysis of the collected radio data corresponding to an operational period of approximately four years. We present the performance of the Astroneu radio array in reconstructing the EAS axis direction using different RF detector geometrical layouts and a technique for the estimation of the shower core by comparing simulation and experimental data. Moreover, we measure the relative amplitudes of the two mechanisms that give rise to RF emission (Askaryan effect and Geomagnetic emission) and show that they are in good agreement with previous studies as well as with the simulation predictions.

Read this paper on arXiv…

S. Nonis, A. Leisos, A. Tsirigotis, et. al.
Wed, 18 Jan 23
108/133

Comments: 26 pages, 11 figures

Performance of an ultra-pure NaI(Tl) detector produced by an indigenously-developed purification method and crystal growth for the COSINE-200 experiment [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04884


The COSINE-100 experiment has been operating with 106 kg of low-background NaI(Tl) detectors to test the results from the DAMA/LIBRA experiment, which claims to have observed dark matter. However, since the background of the NaI(Tl) crystals used in the COSINE-100 experiment is 2-3 times higher than that in the DAMA detectors, no conclusion regarding the claimed observation from the DAMA/LIBRA experiment could be reached. Therefore, we plan to upgrade the current COSINE-100 experiment to the next phase, COSINE-200, by using ultra-low background NaI(Tl) detectors. The basic principle was already proved with the commercially available Astro-grade NaI powder from Sigma-Aldrich company. However, we have developed a mass production process of ultra-pure NaI powder at the Center for Underground Physics (CUP) of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Korea, using the direct purification of the raw NaI powder. We plan to produce more than 1,000 kg of ultra-pure powder for the COSINE200 experiment. With our crystal grower installed at CUP, we have successfully grown a low-background crystal using our purification technique for the NaI powder. We have assembled a low-background NaI(Tl) detector. In this article, we report the performance of this ultra-pure NaI(Tl) crystal detector produced at IBS, Korea.

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H. Lee, B. Park, J. Choi, et. al.
Fri, 13 Jan 23
52/72

Comments: N/A

Dark Matter Induced Nucleon Decay Signals in Mesogenesis [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04165


We introduce and study the first class of signals that can probe the dark matter in Mesogenesis which will be observable at current and upcoming large volume neutrino experiments. The well-motivated Mesogenesis scenario for generating the observed matter-anti-matter asymmetry necessarily has dark matter charged under baryon number. Interactions of these particles with nuclei can induce nucleon decay with kinematics differing from sponanteous nucleon decay. We calculate the rate for this process and develop a simulation of the signal that includes important distortions due to nuclear effects. We estimate the sensitivity of DUNE, Super-Kamiokande, and Hyper-Kamiokande to this striking signal.

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J. Berger and G. Elor
Thu, 12 Jan 23
28/68

Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables. All data generated using this code is available upon request. The code itself can be downloaded from this https URL

Distortion of neutrino oscillations by dark photon dark matter [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.04152


A weakly coupled and light dark photon coupling to lepton charges $L_\mu-L_\tau$ is an intriguing dark matter candidate whose coherent oscillations alter the dispersion relations of leptons. We study how this effect modifies the dynamics of neutrino flavor conversions, focusing on atmospheric and solar oscillations. We analyze data from the T2K, SNO, and Super-Kamiokande experiments in order to obtain world-leading limits on the dark photon gauge coupling for masses below $\sim 10^{-11}\,\mathrm{eV}$. Degeneracies between shifts in the neutrino mass-squared differences and mixing angles and the new physics effect significantly relax the current constrains on the neutrino vacuum oscillation parameters.

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G. Alonso-Álvarez, K. Bleau and J. Cline
Thu, 12 Jan 23
68/68

Comments: 9 pages, 8 figures

Searching for Ultralight Dark Matter Conversion in Solar Corona using LOFAR Data [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.03622


Ultralight axions and dark photons are well-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates. The axion DM and dark photon DM (DPDM) can resonantly convert into electromagnetic (EM) waves in the solar corona when their mass is equal to the solar plasma frequency. The resultant EM waves are mono-chromatic in the radio-frequency range with an energy equal to the DM mass, which can be detected via radio telescopes for solar observations. We search for converted mono-chromatic signals in the observational data of the high-sensitivity Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope. We find the upper limit on the kinetic mixing coupling between DPDM and photon can reach $10^{-13}$ in the frequency range $30-80$ MHz, which is about one order of magnitude better than the existing constraint from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) observation. In addition, we also get the upper limit on the axion-photon coupling in the same frequency range, which is better than the constraints from Light-Shining-through-a-Wall experiments but does not exceed the CAST or other astrophysical bounds.

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H. An, X. Chen, S. Ge, et. al.
Wed, 11 Jan 23
37/80

Comments: 5 pages + appendix, 5 figures

Searching for Ultralight Dark Matter Conversion in Solar Corona using LOFAR Data [CL]

Posted on by

http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.03622


Ultralight axions and dark photons are well-motivated dark matter (DM) candidates. The axion DM and dark photon DM (DPDM) can resonantly convert into electromagnetic (EM) waves in the solar corona when their mass is equal to the solar plasma frequency. The resultant EM waves are mono-chromatic in the radio-frequency range with an energy equal to the DM mass, which can be detected via radio telescopes for solar observations. We search for converted mono-chromatic signals in the observational data of the high-sensitivity Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope. We find the upper limit on the kinetic mixing coupling between DPDM and photon can reach $10^{-13}$ in the frequency range $30-80$ MHz, which is about one order of magnitude better than the existing constraint from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) observation. In addition, we also get the upper limit on the axion-photon coupling in the same frequency range, which is better than the constraints from Light-Shining-through-a-Wall experiments but does not exceed the CAST or other astrophysical bounds.

Read this paper on arXiv…

H. An, X. Chen, S. Ge, et. al.
Wed, 11 Jan 23
37/80

Comments: 5 pages + appendix, 5 figures

An Improved Method of Estimating the Uncertainty of Air-Shower Size at Ultra-High Energies [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.01558


The collection of a statistically significant number detected of cosmic rays with energy above $10^{17}$ to $10^{18}$ eV requires widely-spaced particle detectors at the ground level to detect the extensive air showers induced in the atmosphere. The air-shower sizes, proxies of the primary energies, are then estimated by fitting the observed signals to a functional form for expectations so as to interpolate the signal at a reference distance. The functional form describes the rapid falloff of the expected signal with the distance from the shower core, using typically two logarithmic slopes to account for the short-range and long-range decreases of signals. The uncertainties associated to the air-shower sizes are determined under the assumption of a quadratic dependence of the log-likelihood on the fitted parameters around the minimum, so that a meaningful variance-covariance matrix is provided. In this paper, we show that for an event topology where one signal is much larger than the others, the quadratic dependence of the fitted function around the minimum is a poor approximation that leads to an inaccurate estimate of the uncertainties. To restore a quadratic shape, we propose to use the polar coordinates around the detector recording the largest signal, projected onto the plane of the shower front, to define the likelihood function in terms of logarithmic polar distances, polar angles and logarithmic shower sizes as free parameters. We show that a meaningful variance-covariance matrix is then recovered in the new coordinate system, as the dependence of the fitted function on the modified parameters is properly approximated by a quadratic function. The use of the uncertainties in the new coordinate system for subsequent high-level analyses is illustrated.

Read this paper on arXiv…

A. Coleman, P. Billoir and O. Deligny
Wed, 11 Jan 23
42/80

Comments: Accepted in Astroparticle Physics

Hypothesis of a new fundamental interaction versus the particle oscillation concept [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.03366


The emergence of a logically simple solution to the solar neutrino problem based on the hypothesis of the existence of a new interaction involving electron neutrinos and nucleons did not weaken the dominance of the oscillation concept. Therefore, a significant part of the present work is devoted to proving that the basic elements of this concept either do not correspond to the principles of classical logic, or violate the energy-momentum conservation law, or contradict the quantum mechanical basis of coherence, or represent a primitive falsehood. Our analysis concerns successively all stages of the formation of the concept from its conceiving to the assertion about the conversion of the solar electron neutrino into a muon one. When discussing a new fundamental interaction, we note the decisive role in the outcome of the processes of changing the handedness of a neutrino (antineutrino) at each act of its interaction with a real or virtual massless pseudoscalar boson, due to which, at the exit from the Sun, the fluxes of left- and right-handed electron neutrinos become approximately equal. Thanks to the new interaction, beta decays of nuclei have a mode with the emission of a massless pseudoscalar boson, at which the antineutrino changes its handedness and becomes unobservable, what is the essence of the reactor antineutrino anomaly. The nature of the gallium anomaly is similar.

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L. L.M.Slad
Tue, 10 Jan 23
89/93

Comments: 19 pages

A prototype tank for the SWGO detector [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.02449


The Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO) is an international collaboration working on realizing a next-generation observatory located in the Southern hemisphere, which offers a privileged view of our galactic center. We are working on the construction of a prototype water Cherenkov detector at Politecnico di Milano using a flexible testing facility for several candidate light sensors and configurations. A structure able to hold different types of detectors in multiple configurations has been designed, built and tested in Politecnico’s labs. Furthermore, an analytical study of muons and electrons showers has been carried out using the SWGO observatory simulation software to examine the correlation between the detection capabilities of the prototype tank and its water level.

Read this paper on arXiv…

S. Grusovin, G. Consolati, A. Angelis, et. al.
Mon, 9 Jan 23
21/59

Comments: N/A

Acoustic detection of UHE neutrinos: ANDIAMO perspectives [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.02581


A possible detection of ultra-high-energy neutrinos has been attempted since decades through the Askarian radiation and different observation techniques. In fact, when such energetic neutrinos interact in a medium are able to produce a thermo-acoustic effect resulting in a bipolar pressure pulse that carries a portion of the energy generated by the particle cascades. This effect can be observed in atmosphere looking for the correlated radio emission and in ice/water searching directly the acoustic pulse. The kilometric attenuation length as well as the well-defined shape of the expected pulse favors a large-area-undersea-array of acoustic sensors as a possible observatory. Previous efforts of taking data with a undersea hydrophones array were obtained thanks to already installed submarine military arrays or acoustic system built to calibrate the positions of Cherenkov light detector units. In this proceeding we propose to use the based but not operative offshore oil rigs powered platforms in the Adriatic sea as the main infrastructure to build an acoustic submarine array of dedicated hydrophones covering a total surface area up to $\sim$10000 Km$^{2}$ and a volume up to $\sim$500 Km$^{3}$. A future identification of neutrino events at energies greater than 10$^{18}$ eV will confirm the presence of powerful accelerators in our Universe able to emit cosmic rays up to ZeV energy range.

Read this paper on arXiv…

A. Marinelli, P. Migliozzi and A. Simonelli
Mon, 9 Jan 23
42/59

Comments: 9 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Proceedings of 27th European Cosmic Ray Symposium (Nijmegen July 2022)

An Improved Method of Estimating the Uncertainty of Air-Shower Size at Ultra-High Energies [CL]

Posted on by

http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.01558


The collection of a statistically significant number detected of cosmic rays with energy above $10^{17}$ to $10^{18}$ eV requires widely-spaced particle detectors at the ground level to detect the extensive air showers induced in the atmosphere. The air-shower sizes, proxies of the primary energies, are then estimated by fitting the observed signals to a functional form for expectations so as to interpolate the signal at a reference distance. The functional form describes the rapid falloff of the expected signal with the distance from the shower core, using typically two logarithmic slopes to account for the short-range and long-range decreases of signals. The uncertainties associated to the air-shower sizes are determined under the assumption of a quadratic dependence of the log-likelihood on the fitted parameters around the minimum, so that a meaningful variance-covariance matrix is provided. In this paper, we show that for an event topology where one signal is much larger than the others, the quadratic dependence of the fitted function around the minimum is a poor approximation that leads to an inaccurate estimate of the uncertainties. To restore a quadratic shape, we propose to use the polar coordinates around the detector recording the largest signal, projected onto the plane of the shower front, to define the likelihood function in terms of logarithmic polar distances, polar angles and logarithmic shower sizes as free parameters. We show that a meaningful variance-covariance matrix is then recovered in the new coordinate system, as the dependence of the fitted function on the modified parameters is properly approximated by a quadratic function. The use of the uncertainties in the new coordinate system for subsequent high-level analyses is illustrated.

Read this paper on arXiv…

A. Coleman, P. Billoir and O. Deligny
Thu, 5 Jan 23
47/51

Comments: Accepted in Astroparticle Physics

Bump-hunting in the diffuse flux of high-energy cosmic neutrinos [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2301.00024


The origin of the bulk of the high-energy astrophysical neutrinos seen by IceCube, with TeV–PeV energies, is unknown. If they are made in photohadronic, i.e., proton-photon, interactions in astrophysical sources, this may manifest as a bump-like feature in their diffuse flux, centered around a characteristic energy. We search for evidence of this feature, allowing for variety in its shape and size, in 7.5 years of High-Energy Starting Events (HESE) collected by the IceCube neutrino telescope, and make forecasts using larger data samples from upcoming neutrino telescopes. Present-day data reveals no evidence of bump-like features, which allows us to constrain candidate populations of photohadronic neutrino sources. Near-future forecasts show promising potential for stringent constraints or decisive discovery of bump-like features. Our results provide new insight into the origins of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos, complementing those from point-source searches.

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D. Fiorillo and M. Bustamante
Tue, 3 Jan 23
14/49

Comments: 29 pages, 13 figures

D-Egg: a Dual PMT Optical Module for IceCube [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.14526


The D-Egg, an acronym for “Dual optical sensors in an Ellipsoid Glass for Gen2,” is one of the optical modules designed for future extensions of the IceCube experiment at the South Pole. The D-Egg has an elongated-sphere shape to maximize the photon-sensitive effective area while maintaining a narrow diameter to reduce the cost and the time needed for drilling of the deployment holes in the glacial ice for the optical modules at depths up to 2700 meters. The D-Egg design is utilized for the IceCube Upgrade, the next stage of the IceCube project also known as IceCube-Gen2 Phase 1, where nearly half of the optical sensors to be deployed are D-Eggs. With two 8-inch high-quantum efficiency photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) per module, D-Eggs offer an increased effective area while retaining the successful design of the IceCube digital optical module (DOM). The convolution of the wavelength-dependent effective area and the Cherenkov emission spectrum provides an effective photodetection sensitivity that is 2.8 times larger than that of IceCube DOMs. The signal of each of the two PMTs is digitized using ultra-low-power 14-bit analog-to-digital converters with a sampling frequency of 240 MSPS, enabling a flexible event triggering, as well as seamless and lossless event recording of single-photon signals to multi-photons exceeding 200 photoelectrons within 10 nanoseconds. Mass production of D-Eggs has been completed, with 277 out of the 310 D-Eggs produced to be used in the IceCube Upgrade. In this paper, we report the des\ ign of the D-Eggs, as well as the sensitivity and the single to multi-photon detection performance of mass-produced D-Eggs measured in a laboratory using the built-in data acquisition system in each D-Egg optical sensor module.

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R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, J. Adams, et. al.
Mon, 2 Jan 23
11/44

Comments: 26 pages, 18 figures, 1 table

High-Energy Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray-Faint Accretion-Powered Hypernebulae [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.11236


Hypernebulae are inflated by accretion-powered winds accompanying hyper-Eddington mass transfer from an evolved post-main sequence star onto a black hole or neutron star companion. The ions accelerated at the termination shock$-$where the collimated fast disk winds/jet collide with the slower, wide-angled winds$-$can generate high-energy neutrinos via hadronic ($pp$) reactions, and photohadronic ($p\gamma$) interactions with the disk thermal and Comptonized nonthermal background photons. It has been suggested that some fast radio bursts (FRBs) may be powered by such short-lived jetted hyper-accreting engines. Although neutrino emission associated with the ms-duration bursts themselves is challenging to detect, the persistent radio counterparts of some FRB sources$-$if associated with hypernebulae$-$could contribute to the high energy neutrino diffuse background flux. If the hypernebula birth rate follows that of steller-merger transients and common envelope events, we find that their volume-integrated neutrino emission$-$depending on the population-averaged mass-transfer rates$-$could explain $\gtrsim 25\%$ of the high-energy diffuse neutrino flux observed by the IceCube Observatory and the Baikal-GVD Telescope. The time-averaged neutrino spectrum from hypernebula$-$depending on the population parameters$-$can also reproduce the observed diffuse neutrino spectrum. The neutrino emission could in some cases furthermore extend to $>$100 PeV, detectable by future ultra-high-energy neutrino observatories. The large optical depth through the nebula to Breit-Wheeler ($\gamma\gamma$) interaction attenuates the escape of GeV-PeV gamma-rays co-produced with the neutrinos, rendering these gamma-ray-faint neutrino sources, consistent with the Fermi observations of the isotropic gamma-ray background.

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N. Sridhar, B. Metzger and K. Fang
Thu, 22 Dec 22
24/59

Comments: 20 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Submitted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; comments welcome

TelePix — A fast region of interest trigger and timing layer for the EUDET Telescopes [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.10248


Test beam facilities are essential to study the response of novel detectors to particles. At the DESY II Test Beam facility, users can test their detectors with an electron beam with a momentum from 1-6 GeV. To track the beam particles, EUDET-style telescopes are provided in each beam area. They provide excellent spatial resolution, but the time resolution is limited by the rolling shutter architecture to a precision of approximately 230 $\mu$s. Since the demand on particle rates — and hence track multiplicities — is increasing timing is becoming more relevant. DESY foresees several upgrades of the telescopes. TelePix is an upgrade project to provide track timestamping with a precision of better than 5 ns and a configurable region of interest to trigger the telescope readout. Small scale prototypes have been characterised in laboratory and test beam measurements. Laboratory tests with an injection corresponding to 2300 electrons show a S/N of above 20. Test beam characterization shows efficiencies of above 99% over a threshold range of more than 100 mV and time resolutions of 2.4 ns at low noise rates.

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H. Augustin, S. Dittmeier, J. Hammerich, et. al.
Wed, 21 Dec 22
65/81

Comments: Preprint submitted to Proceedings of the 15th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors

Pierre Auger Observatory and Super Heavy Dark Matter [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.10476


We briefly discuss the connection of the Pierre Auger Observatory data with a large class of dark matter models based on the early universe generation of super heavy particles, their role in the solution of the dark matter problem, highlighting the remarkable constraining capabilities of the Auger observations.

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Roberto Aloisio
Wed, 21 Dec 22
80/81

Comments: 4 pages, 5 figures, talk given at the Rome International Conference on Astroparticle Physics (RICAP22), 6-9 September 2022, Rome, Italy

A study on Performance Boost of a 17~m class Cherenkov telescope with a SiPM-based camera [IMA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.09456


The current generation of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), comprised of major installations such as the MAGIC telescopes, H.E.S.S. and VERITAS, is classified as the 3$^{\mathrm{rd}}$ generation of suchs instruments. These telescopes use multipixel cameras composed of thousands of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The total light throughput of such instruments depends, besides the PMT photon detection efficiency (PDE), on the mirror dish reflectivity, and the light absorption by the camera window. The supremacy of PMTs is currently being challenged by photon sensors rapidly spreading in popularity, the silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), that are becoming a valid alternative thanks to their high PDE, low operating voltage and flexibility in installation. In this report, we investigate the performance of an existing 3$^{\mathrm{rd}}$-generation IACT array (taking as an example MAGIC) in which PMTs would be replaced with SiPMs, with minimal further hardware intervention. This would mean that other systems of the telescope responsible for the light collection, in particular the optics, would remain the same, and only the electronic to steer the different photodetectors would be modified. We find an increase of sensitivity up to a factor of 2 for energies below 200~GeV. Interestingly, we also find that the stronger sensitivity of SiPMs in the red part of the spectrum, a source of background for IACTs, does not affect this conclusion.

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C. Arcaro, M. Doro, J. Sitarek, et. al.
Tue, 20 Dec 22
66/97

Comments: N/A

Disentangling Sub-GeV Dark Matter from the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background using Hyper-Kamiokande [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.07989


The upcoming Hyper-Kamiokande (HyperK) experiment is expected to detect the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB). This requires to ponder all possible sources of background. Sub-GeV dark matter (DM) which annihilates into neutrinos is a potential background that has not been considered so far. We simulate DSNB and DM signals, as well as backgrounds in the HyperK detector. We find that DM-induced neutrinos could indeed alter the extraction of the correct values of the parameters of interest for DSNB physics. Since the DSNB is an isotropic signal, and DM originates primarily from the Galactic centre, we show that this effect could be alleviated with an on-off analysis.

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S. Robles
Fri, 16 Dec 22
17/72

Comments: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in SciPost Physics Proceedings: 14th International Conference on Identification of Dark Matter (IDM) 2022

Doped Semiconductor Devices for sub-MeV Dark Matter Detection [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.04504


Dopant atoms in semiconductors can be ionized with $\sim10$ meV energy depositions, allowing for the design of low-threshold detectors. We propose using doped semiconductor targets to search for sub-MeV dark matter scattering or sub-eV dark matter absorption on electrons. Currently unconstrained cross sections could be tested with a 1 g-day exposure in a doped detector with backgrounds at the level of existing pure semiconductor detectors, but improvements would be needed to probe the freeze-in target. We discuss the corresponding technological requirements and lay out a possible detector design.

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P. Du, D. Egaña-Ugrinovic, R. Essig, et. al.
Mon, 12 Dec 22
6/52

Comments: 12 pages, 7 figures

Detection of hidden photon dark matter using the direct excitation of transmon qubits [CL]

Posted on by

http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03884


We propose a novel dark matter detection method utilizing the excitation of superconducting transmon qubits. Assuming the hidden photon dark matter of a mass of $O(10)\ \mu{\rm eV}$, the classical wave-matter oscillation induces an effective ac electric field via the small kinetic mixing with the ordinary photon. This serves as a coherent drive field for a qubit when it is resonant, evolving it from the ground state towards the first-excited state. We evaluate the rate of such evolution and observable excitations in the measurements, as well as the search sensitivity to the hidden photon dark matter. For a selected mass, one can reach $\epsilon \sim 10^{-12}-10^{-14}$ (where $\epsilon$ is the kinetic mixing parameter of the hidden photon) with a single standard transmon qubit. A simple extension to the frequency-tunable SQUID-based transmon enables the mass scan to cover the whole $4-40\ \mu{\rm eV}$ ($1-10$ GHz) range within a reasonable length of run time. The sensitivity scalability along the number of the qubits also makes it a promising platform in accord to the rapid evolution of the superconducting quantum computer technology.

Read this paper on arXiv…

S. Chen, H. Fukuda, T. Inada, et. al.
Fri, 9 Dec 22
26/75

Comments: 7 pages, 1 figure

A large facility for photosensors test at cryogenic temperature [CL]

Posted on by

http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.02296


Current generation of detectors using noble gases in liquid phase for direct dark matter search and neutrino physics need large area photosensors. Silicon based photo-detectors are innovative light collecting devices and represent a successful technology in these research fields. %of direct dark matter search detectors based on liquified noble gases. The DarkSide collaboration started a dedicated development and customization of SiPM technology for its specific needs resulting in the design, production and assembly of large surface modules of 20$\times$20 cm$^{2}$ named Photo Detection Unit for the DarkSide-20k experiment. Production of a large number of such devices, as needed to cover about 20 m$^{2}$ of active surface inside the DarkSide-20k detector, requires a robust testing and validation process. In order to match this requirement a dedicated test facility for the photosensor test was designed and commissioned at INFN-Naples laboratory. The first commissioning test was successfully performed in 2021. Since then a number of testing campaigns were performed. Detailed description of the facility is reported as well as results of some tests.

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Z. Balmforth, A. Basco, A. Boiano, et. al.
Thu, 8 Dec 22
2/63

Comments: Prepared for submission to JINST – LIDINE2022 – September 21-23, 2022 – University of Warsaw Library

Invisible Neutrino Decays as Origin of TeV Gamma Rays from GRB221009A [CL]

Posted on by

http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.03477


Recently, the LHAASO collaboration has observed the gamma rays of energies up to ten TeV from the gamma-ray burst GRB221009A, which has stimulated the community of astronomy, particle physics and astrophysics to propose various possible interpretations. In this paper, we put forward a viable scenario that neutrinos are produced together with TeV photons in the gamma-ray burst and gradually decay into the axion-like particles, which are then converted into gamma rays in the galactic magnetic fields. In such a scenario, the tension between previous axion-like particle interpretations and the existing observational constraints on the relevant coupling constant and mass can be relaxed.

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J. Huang, Y. Wang, B. Yu, et. al.
Thu, 8 Dec 22
24/63

Comments: 21 pages, 5 figures

A Large Muon EDM from Dark Matter [CL]

Posted on by

http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.02891


We explore a model of dark matter (DM) that can explain the reported discrepancy in the muon anomalous magnetic moment and predict a large electric dipole moment (EDM) of the muon. The model contains a DM fermion and new scalars whose exclusive interactions with the muon radiatively generate the observed muon mass. Constraints from DM direct and indirect detection experiments as well as collider searches are safely evaded. The model parameter space that gives the observed DM abundance and explains the muon $g-2$ anomaly leads to the muon EDM of $d_{\mu} \simeq (4$-$5) \times 10^{-22} \, e \, {\rm cm}$ that can be probed by the projected PSI muEDM experiment. Another viable parameter space even achieves $d_{\mu} = \mathcal{O}(10^{-21}) \, e \, {\rm cm}$ reachable by the ongoing Fermilab Muon $g-2$ experiment and the future J-PARC Muon $g-2$/EDM experiment.

Read this paper on arXiv…

K. Khaw, Y. Nakai, R. Sato, et. al.
Wed, 7 Dec 22
47/74

Comments: 35 pages, 3 figures

The WIMP Paradigm: Theme and Variations [CL]

Posted on by

http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.02479


WIMPs, weakly-interacting massive particles, have been leading candidates for particle dark matter for decades, and they remain a viable and highly motivated possibility. In these lectures, I describe the basic motivations for WIMPs, beginning with the WIMP miracle and its under-appreciated cousin, the discrete WIMP miracle. I then give an overview of some of the basic features of WIMPs and how to find them. These lectures conclude with some variations on the WIMP theme that have by now become significant topics in their own right and illustrate the richness of the WIMP paradigm.

Read this paper on arXiv…

J. Feng
Tue, 6 Dec 22
8/87

Comments: 36 pages; lectures given at the 2021 Les Houches Summer School on Dark Matter, submitted to SciPost Physics Lecture Notes, Les Houches Summer School Series. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1003.0904

The TeV Sun Rises: Discovery of Gamma rays from the Quiescent Sun with HAWC [HEAP]

Posted on by

http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.00815


We report the first detection of a TeV gamma-ray flux from the solar disk (6.3$\sigma$), based on 6.1 years of data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory. The 0.5–2.6 TeV spectrum is well fit by a power law, dN/dE = $A (E/1 \text{ TeV})^{-\gamma}$, with $A = (1.6 \pm 0.3) \times 10^{-12}$ TeV$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ and $\gamma = -3.62 \pm 0.14$. The flux shows a strong indication of anticorrelation with solar activity. These results extend the bright, hard GeV emission from the disk observed with Fermi-LAT, seemingly due to hadronic Galactic cosmic rays showering on nuclei in the solar atmosphere. However, current theoretical models are unable to explain the details of how solar magnetic fields shape these interactions. HAWC’s TeV detection thus deepens the mysteries of the solar-disk emission.

Read this paper on arXiv…

R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, J. Arteaga-Velazquez, et. al.
Mon, 5 Dec 22
53/63

Comments: 15 pages, 8 figures

Probing Pseudo-Dirac Neutrinos with Astrophysical Sources at IceCube [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2212.00737


The recent observation of NGC 1068 by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has opened a new window to neutrino physics with astrophysical baselines. In this Letter, we propose a new method to probe the nature of neutrino masses using these observations. In particular, our method enables searching for signatures of pseudo-Dirac neutrinos with mass-squared differences that reach down to $\delta m^2 \gtrsim 10^{-21}~\text{eV}^2$, improving the reach of terrestrial experiments by more than a billion. Finally, we discuss how the discovery of a constellation of neutrino sources can further increase the sensitivity and cover a wider range of $\delta m^2$ values.

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K. Carloni, I. Martinez-Soler, C. Arguelles, et. al.
Fri, 2 Dec 22
26/81

Comments: 6 pages, 4 figures

X-ray Performance of a Small Pixel Size sCMOS Sensor and the Effect of Depletion Depth [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.16901


In recent years, scientific Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (sCMOS) devices have been increasingly applied in X-ray detection, thanks to their attributes such as high frame rate, low dark current, high radiation tolerance and low readout noise. We tested the basic performance of a backside-illuminated (BSI) sCMOS sensor, which has a small pixel size of 6.5 um * 6.5 um. At a temperature of -20C, The readout noise is 1.6 e, the dark current is 0.5 e/pixel/s, and the energy resolution reaches 204.6 eV for single-pixel events. The effect of depletion depth on the sensor’s performance was also examined, using three versions of the sensors with different deletion depths. We found that the sensor with a deeper depletion region can achieve a better energy resolution for events of all types of pixel splitting patterns, and has a higher efficiency in collecting photoelectrons produced by X-ray photons. We further study the effect of depletion depth on charge diffusion with a center-of-gravity (CG) model. Based on this work, a highly depleted sCMOS is recommended for applications of soft X-ray spectroscop.

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Y. Hsiao, Z. Ling, C. Zhang, et. al.
Thu, 1 Dec 22
24/85

Comments: 11 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in JInst

Constraining Single-Field Inflation with MegaMapper [CEA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.14899


We forecast the constraints on single-field inflation from the bispectrum of future high-redshift surveys such as MegaMapper. Considering non-local primordial non-Gaussianity (NLPNG), we find that current methods will yield constraints of order $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq})\approx 23$, $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth})\approx 12$ in a joint power-spectrum and bispectrum analysis, varying both nuisance parameters and cosmology, including a conservative range of scales. Fixing cosmological parameters and quadratic bias parameter relations, the limits tighten significantly to $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq})\approx 17$, $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth})\approx 8$. These compare favorably with the forecasted bounds from CMB-S4: $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq})\approx 21$, $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth})\approx 9$, with a combined constraint of $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm eq})\approx 14$, $\sigma(f_{\rm NL}^{\rm orth})\approx 7$; this weakens only slightly if one instead combines with data from the Simons Observatory. We additionally perform a range of Fisher analyses for the error, forecasting the dependence on nuisance parameter marginalization, scale cuts, and survey strategy. Lack of knowledge of bias and counterterm parameters is found to significantly limit the information content; this could be ameliorated by tight simulation-based priors on the nuisance parameters. The error-bars decrease significantly as the number of observed galaxies and survey depth is increased: as expected, deep dense surveys are the most constraining, though it will be difficult to reach $\sigma(f_{\rm NL})\approx 1$ with current methods. The NLPNG constraints will tighten further with improved theoretical models (incorporating higher-loop corrections), as well as the inclusion of additional higher-order statistics.

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G. Cabass, M. Ivanov, O. Philcox, et. al.
Tue, 29 Nov 22
26/80

Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett. B

Design and test results of different aluminum coating layers on the sCMOS sensors for soft X-ray detection [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.15132


In recent years, tremendous progress has been made on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) sensors for applications as X-ray detectors. To shield the visible light in X-ray detection, a blocking filter of aluminum is commonly employed. We designed three types of aluminum coating layers, which are deposited directly on the surface of back-illuminated sCMOS sensors during fabrication. A commercial 2k * 2k sCMOS sensor is used to realize these designs. In this work, we report their performance by comparison with that of an uncoated sCMOS sensor. The optical transmissions at 660 nm and 850 nm are measured, and the results show that the optical transmission reaches a level of about 10-9 for the 200 nm aluminum layer and about 10-4 for the 100 nm aluminum layer. Light leakage is found around the four sides of the sensor. The readout noise, fixed-pattern noise and energy resolution of these Al-coated sCMOS sensors do not show significant changes. The dark currents of these Al-coated sCMOS sensors show a noticeable increase compared with that of the uncoated sCMOS sensor at room temperatures, while no significant difference is found when the sCMOS sensors are cooled down to about -15 degree. The aluminum coatings show no visible crack after the thermal cycle and aging tests. Based on these results, an aluminum coating of a larger area on larger sCMOS sensors is proposed for future work.

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W. Wang, Z. Ling, C. Zhang, et. al.
Tue, 29 Nov 22
47/80

Comments: Accept for publication in JInst

Directional direct detection of light dark matter up-scattered by cosmic-rays from direction of the Galactic center [CEA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.13399


Dark matters with MeV- or keV-scale mass are difficult to detect with standard direct search detectors. However, they can be searched for by considering the up-scattering of kinetic energies by cosmic-rays. Since dark matter density is higher in the central region of the Galaxy, the up-scattered dark matter will arrive at Earth from the direction of the Galactic center. Once the dark matter is detected, we can expect to recognize this feature by directional direct detection experiments. In this study, we simulate the nuclear recoils of the up-scattered dark matter and quantitatively reveal that a large amount of this type of dark matter is arriving from the direction of the Galactic center. Also, we have shown that the characteristic signatures of the up-scattered dark matter can be verified with more than 5 $\sigma$ confidence levels in the case of all assumed target atoms in the scope of the future upgrade of the directional detectors.

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K. Nagao, S. Higashino, T. Naka, et. al.
Mon, 28 Nov 22
81/93

Comments: 16 pages, 64 figures

Millicharged particles from proton bremsstrahlung in the atmosphere [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.11469


Light millicharged particles can be copiously produced from meson decays in cosmic ray collisions with the atmosphere, leading to detectable signals in large underground neutrino detectors. In this paper we study a new channel to produce millicharged particles in the atmosphere, the proton bremsstrahlung process. We find that the proton bremsstrahlung channel can produce a much larger flux of millicharged particles than the previously studied meson decay channel, resulting in an improvement on the SuperK limit by nearly one order of magnitude. Consequently, SuperK can probe new parameter space beyond the current leading limits from ArgoNeuT. We further note that the study on the proton bremsstrahlung process can be extended to other atmospherically produced light particles, and to millicharged particle searches in proton accelerators.

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M. Du, R. Fang and Z. Liu
Tue, 22 Nov 22
6/83

Comments: 11 pages, 8 figures

Axion haloscope signal power from reciprocity [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.11503


Axion haloscopes search for dark matter axions from the galactic halo, most commonly by measuring a power excess sourced by the axion effective current density. Constraining axion parameters from detection or lack thereof requires estimating the expected signal power. Often, this is done by studying the response of the haloscope to a known, but different, source current density, for example via a reflection measurement. However, only in the special case when both sources induce the same electromagnetic fields, do the quantities derived from a reflection measurement adequately describe the setup during an axion measurement. While this might be valid for the traditional resonant cavity haloscope, new broadband or open designs like dish antennas or dielectric haloscopes cannot make this assumption. A more general relation between axion- and reflection-induced fields is needed. In this article, we use the Lorentz reciprocity theorem to derive an expression for the axion signal power which instead of the unmeasurable axion-induced fields depends on the measurable reflection-induced fields. This entirely circumvents the need to know the response of the haloscope to the unknown axion source. It applies to a wide variety of haloscopes including resonant cavities, dielectric haloscopes, and broadband dish antennas.

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J. Egge
Tue, 22 Nov 22
14/83

Comments: N/A

A Review of NEST Models, and Their Application to Improvement of Particle Identification in Liquid Xenon Experiments [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.10726


Liquid xenon is a leader in rare-event physics searches. Accurate modeling of charge and light production is key for simulating signals and backgrounds in this medium. The signal- and background-production models in the Noble Element Simulation Technique (NEST) are presented. NEST is a simulation toolkit based on experimental data, fit using simple, empirical formulae for the average charge and light yields and their variations. NEST also simulates the final scintillation pulses and exhibits the correct energy resolution as a function of the particle type, the energy, and the electric fields. After vetting of NEST against raw data, with several specific examples pulled from XENON, ZEPLIN, LUX/LZ, and PandaX, we interpolate and extrapolate its models to draw new conclusions on the properties of future detectors (e.g., XLZD’s), in terms of the best possible discrimination of electron(ic) recoil backgrounds from a potential nuclear recoil signal, especially WIMP dark matter. We discover that the oft-quoted value of 99.5% discrimination is overly conservative, demonstrating that another order of magnitude improvement (99.95% discrimination) can be achieved with a high photon detection efficiency (g1 ~ 15-20%) at reasonably achievable drift fields of 200-350 V/cm.

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M. Szydagis, J. Balajthy, G. Block, et. al.
Tue, 22 Nov 22
48/83

Comments: 24 Pages, 6 Tables, 15 Figures, and 15 Equations

Evidence for neutrino emission from the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068 [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.09972


We report three searches for high energy neutrino emission from astrophysical objects using data recorded with IceCube between 2011 and 2020. Improvements over previous work include new neutrino reconstruction and data calibration methods. In one search, the positions of 110 a priori selected gamma-ray sources were analyzed individually for a possible surplus of neutrinos over atmospheric and cosmic background expectations. We found an excess of $79_{-20}^{+22}$ neutrinos associated with the nearby active galaxy NGC 1068 at a significance of 4.2$\,\sigma$. The excess, which is spatially consistent with the direction of the strongest clustering of neutrinos in the Northern Sky, is interpreted as direct evidence of TeV neutrino emission from a nearby active galaxy. The inferred flux exceeds the potential TeV gamma-ray flux by at least one order of magnitude.

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I. Collaboration, R. Abbasi, M. Ackermann, et. al.
Mon, 21 Nov 22
18/66

Comments: for the published version of this article visit the Science web portal: this https URL , or the IceCube database (no subscription needed): this https URL

Snowmass Cosmic Frontier Report [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.09978


This report summarizes the current status of Cosmic Frontier physics and the broad and exciting future prospects identified for the Cosmic Frontier as part of the 2021 Snowmass Process.

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A. Chou, M. Soares-Santos, T. Tait, et. al.
Mon, 21 Nov 22
30/66

Comments: 55 pages. Contribution to the 2021 Snowmass Summer Study

Towards an electrostatic storage ring for fundamental physics measurements [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.08439


We describe a new table-top electrostatic storage ring concept for $30$ keV polarized ions at frozen spin condition. The device will ultimately be capable of measuring magnetic fields with a resolution of 10$^{-21}$ T with sub-mHz bandwidth. With the possibility to store different kinds of ions or ionic molecules and access to prepare and probe states of the systems using lasers and SQUIDs, it can be used to search for electric dipole moments (EDMs) of electrons and nucleons, as well as axion-like particle dark matter and dark photon dark matter. Its sensitivity potential stems from several hours of storage time, comparably long spin coherence times, and the possibility to trap up to 10$^9$ particles in bunches with possibly different state preparations for differential measurements. As a dark matter experiment, it is most sensitive in the mass range of 10$^{-10}$ to 10$^{-19}$ eV, where it can potentially probe couplings orders of magnitude below current and proposed laboratory experiments.

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C. Brandenstein, S. Stelzl, E. Gutsmiedl, et. al.
Thu, 17 Nov 22
37/63

Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Symmetries in Subatomic Physics (SSP2022)

Snowmass Neutrino Frontier Report [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.08641


This report summarizes the current status of neutrino physics and the broad and exciting future prospects identified for the Neutrino Frontier as part of the 2021 Snowmass Process.

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P. Huber, K. Scholberg, E. Worcester, et. al.
Thu, 17 Nov 22
61/63

Comments: 49 pages, contribution to: 2021 Snowmass Summer Study

Snowmass 2021 Dark Matter Complementarity Report [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.07027


The fundamental nature of Dark Matter is a central theme of the Snowmass 2021 process, extending across all Frontiers. In the last decade, advances in detector technology, analysis techniques and theoretical modeling have enabled a new generation of experiments and searches while broadening the types of candidates we can pursue. Over the next decade, there is great potential for discoveries that would transform our understanding of dark matter. In the following, we outline a road map for discovery developed in collaboration among the Frontiers. A strong portfolio of experiments that delves deep, searches wide, and harnesses the complementarity between techniques is key to tackling this complicated problem, requiring expertise, results, and planning from all Frontiers of the Snowmass 2021 process.

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A. Boveia, M. Berkat, T. Chen, et. al.
Tue, 15 Nov 22
53/103

Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures. Version prepared for inclusion in the Snowmass Book. Extended version at arXiv:2210.01770

Direct dark matter searches with the full data set of XMASS-I [CEA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.06204


Various WIMP dark matter searches using the full data set of XMASS-I, a single-phase liquid xenon detector, are reported in this paper. Stable XMASS-I data taking accumulated a total live time of 1590.9 days between November 20, 2013 and February 1, 2019 with an analysis threshold of ${\rm 1.0\,keV_{ee}}$. In the latter half of data taking a lower analysis threshold of ${\rm 0.5\,keV_{ee}}$ was also available through a new low threshold trigger. Searching for a WIMP signal in the detector’s 97~kg fiducial volume yielded a limit on the WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section of ${\rm 1.4\times 10^{-44}\, cm^{2}}$ for a ${\rm 60\,GeV/c^{2}}$ WIMP at the 90$\%$ confidence level. We also searched for WIMP induced annual modulation signatures in the detector’s whole target volume, containing 832~kg of liquid xenon. For nuclear recoils of a ${\rm 8\,GeV/c^{2}}$ WIMP this analysis yielded a 90\% CL cross section limit of ${\rm 2.3\times 10^{-42}\, cm^{2}}$. At a WIMP mass of ${\rm 0.5\, GeV/c^{2}}$ the Migdal effect and Bremsstrahlung signatures were evaluated and lead to 90\% CL cross section limits of ${\rm 1.4\times 10^{-35}\, cm^{2}}$ and ${\rm 1.1\times 10^{-33}\, cm^{2}}$ respectively.

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X. Collaboration, K. Abe, K. Hiraide, et. al.
Mon, 14 Nov 22
29/69

Comments: N/A

Forbidden Dark Matter Combusted Around Supermassive Black Hole [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.05643


The forbidden dark matter cannot annihilate into heavier partner or SM particles by definition at the late stage of the cosmological evolution. We point out the possibility of reactivating the annihilation channel of forbidden dark matter around supermassive black holes. Being attracted towards black hole, the forbidden dark matter is significantly accelerated to overcome the annihilation threshold. The subsequent decay of the annihilation products to photon leaves unique signal around the black hole, which can serve as smoking gun of the forbidden dark matter.

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Y. Cheng, S. Ge, X. He, et. al.
Fri, 11 Nov 22
53/58

Comments: 7 pages, 4 figures

Detecting gamma-rays with moderate resolution and large field of view: Particle detector arrays and water Cherenkov technique [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.04932


The fields of cosmic ray astrophysics, gamma-ray astrophysics, and neutrino astrophysics have diverged somewhat. But for the air showers in the GeV and TeV energy ranges, the ground-based detector techniques have considerable overlaps. VHE gamma-ray astronomy is the observational study measuring the directions, flux, energy spectra, and time variability of the sources of these gamma rays. With the low flux of gamma rays, and the background of charged particle cosmic rays, the distinguishing characteristic of gamma-ray air shower detectors is large size and significant photon to charge particle discrimination. Air shower telescopes for gamma-ray astronomy consist of an array of detectors capable of measuring the passage of particles through the array elements. To maximize signal at energies of a TeV or so, the array needs to be built at high altitude as the maximum number of shower particles is high in the atmosphere. These detectors have included sparse arrays of shower counters, dense arrays of scintillators or resistive plate counters (RPC), buried muon detectors in concert with surface detectors, or many-interaction-deep Water Cherenkov Detectors (WCD). In general these detectors are sensitive over a large field of view, the whole of the sky is a typical sensitivity and perhaps 2/3 of the sky selected for clean analysis, but with only moderate resolution in energy, typically due to shower-to-shower fluctuations and the intrinsic sampling of the detector. These telescopes though, operate continuously, despite weather, moonlight, day or night, and without needing to be pointed to a specific target for essentially a 100\% duty cycle. In this chapter we will examine the performance and characteristics of such detectors. These are contrasted with the Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes which also operate in this energy range, and both current and future proposed experiments are described.

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M. DuVernois and G. Sciascio
Thu, 10 Nov 22
63/78

Comments: 25 pages, 14 figures, Invited Chapter for “Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astrophysics” (Eds. C. Bambi and A. Santangelo, Springer Singapore, expected in 2022)

A general method for goodness-of-fit tests for arbitrary multivariate models [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.03478


Goodness-of-fit tests are often used in data analysis to test the agreement of a model to a set of data. Out of the box tests that can target any proposed distribution model are only available in the univariate case. In this note I discuss how to build a goodness-of-fit test for arbitrary multivariate distributions or multivariate data generation models. The resulting tests perform an unbinned analysis and do not need any trials factor or look-elsewhere correction since the multivariate data can be analyzed all at once. The proposed distribution or generative model is used to transform the data to an uncorrelated space where the test is developed. Depending on the complexity of the model, it is possible to perform the transformation analytically or numerically with the help of a Normalizing Flow algorithm.

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L. Shtembari
Tue, 8 Nov 22
79/79

Comments: N/A

Cosmogenic particles at ground level and their correlations with primary particles [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.02427


The particle showers produced in the atmosphere due to the interactions of primary cosmic particles require a thorough understanding in the backdrop of searches for rare interactions. While the showers encompass the physics of strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions, the very first interactions are strong interactions producing hadronic showers which could introduce uncertainties in the estimates of particle yields. In this work, we made a comprehensive study of air shower simulations using various combinations of hadronic models and particle transport code of the CORSIKA package. The hadronic particles mostly pions and kaons decay to muons which are the most abundant charged particles on Earth. The primary proton and helium distributions are taken as power law which are scaled to match the measured flux in balloon experiments at the top of atmosphere. The shower simulation includes production, transport, and decays of secondaries up to the ground level. In this study, we focus on the bulk of the spectra and particles rather than very high energy showers. We provide a way to normalize the simulation results to be compared with the ground-based measurements namely, single and multiple muon yields and their charge ratios as a function of zenith angle and momentum. This provides a basis for comparisons amoung the six model combinations used in this study and the differences are outlined. Most of the hadronic models in CORSIKA produce the bulk ground based measurements fairly well. We use one of the best model combinations to quantitatively predict the absolute and relative yields of various particles at ground level as well as their correlations with primaries and with each other.

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H. Sogarwal and P. Shukla
Mon, 7 Nov 22
14/67

Comments: 26 pages, 18 figures

Connecting small-scale to large-scale structures of fast neutrino-flavor conversion [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.01398


We present a systematic study of fast neutrino-flavor conversion (FFC) with both small-scale and large-scale numerical simulations in spherical symmetry. We find that FFCs can, in general, reach in a quasi-steady state, and these features in the non-linear phase are not characterized by the growth rate of FFC instability but rather angular structures of electron neutrino lepton number (ELN) and heavy one (XLN). Our result suggests that neutrinos can almost reach a flavor equipartition even in cases with low growth rate of instability (e.g., shallow ELN crossing) and narrow angular regions (in momentum space) where flavor conversions occur vigorously. This exhibits that ELN and XLN angular distributions can not provide a sufficient information to determine total amount of flavor conversion in neutrinos and antineutrinos of all flavors. Based on the results of our numerical simulations, we provide a new approximate scheme of FFC that is designed so that one can easily incorporate effects of FFCs in existing classical neutrino transport codes for the study of core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and binary neutron star merger (BNSM). The scheme has an ability to capture key features of quasi-steady state of FFCs without solving quantum kinetic neutrino transport, which will serve to facilitate access to FFCs for CCSN and BNSM theorists.

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H. Nagakura and M. Zaizen
Fri, 4 Nov 22
11/84

Comments: 22 pages, 18 figures

Detecting axion dark matter beyond the magnetoquasistatic approximation [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2211.00008


A number of proposals have been put forward for detecting axion dark matter (DM) with grand unification scale decay constants that rely on the conversion of coherent DM axions to oscillating magnetic fields in the presence of static, laboratory magnetic fields. Crucially, such experiments $\unicode{x2013}$ including ABRACADABRA $\unicode{x2013}$ have to-date worked in the limit that the axion Compton wavelength is larger than the size of the experiment, which allows one to take a magnetoquasistatic (MQS) approach to modeling the axion signal. We use finite element methods to solve the coupled axion-electromagnetism equations of motion without assuming the MQS approximation. We show that the MQS approximation becomes a poor approximation at frequencies two orders of magnitude lower than the naive MQS limit. Radiation losses diminish the quality factor of an otherwise high-$Q$ resonant readout circuit, though this may be mitigated through shielding and minimizing lossy materials. Additionally, self-resonances associated with the detector geometry change the reactive properties of the pickup system, leading to two generic features beyond MQS: there are frequencies that require an inductive rather than capacitive tuning to maintain resonance, and the detector itself becomes a multi-pole resonator at high frequencies. Accounting for these features, competitive sensitivity to the axion-photon coupling may be extended well beyond the naive MQS limit.

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J. Benabou, J. Foster, Y. Kahn, et. al.
Wed, 2 Nov 22
65/67

Comments: 6+5 pages, 3+9 figures

Advanced LIGO, LISA, and Cosmic Explorer as dark matter transducers [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.17487


We present a method to search for scalar field ultralight dark matter directly interacting with gravitational-wave interferometers via a modulation of the fine structure constant and the electron mass. This modulation induces an effective strain in solid materials at a frequency determined by the mass of the dark matter particle. We study the prospects for looking for such an effect in the LIGO detectors by using the solid cavity which is nominally used for pre-stabilizing the laser frequency and we project upper limits. We contextualize them with previous limits from GEO600, possible limits from a similar strain in the LIGO beamsplitter, and with potential limits from upcoming experiments like LISA, Cosmic Explorer and from an upgraded solid cavity. We find that with the sensitivity of Advanced LIGO, competitive upper limits on DM coupling can be placed at the level of $\left\vert d_{m_e}+d_e\right\vert \sim 0.2$ for $m_\text{DM} \sim 10^{-13}\,\mathrm{eV}/\mathrm{c}^2$ with a combination of two searches using the solid cavity and the beamsplitter in LIGO; future experiments could reduce this upper limit to $\sim10^{-3}$.

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E. Hall and N. Aggarwal
Tue, 1 Nov 22
36/100

Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures

The CMSSM Survives Planck, the LHC, LUX-ZEPLIN, Fermi-LAT, H.E.S.S. and IceCube [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.16337


We revisit the viability of the CMSSM, searching for regions of parameter space that yield a neutralino dark matter density compatible with Planck measurements, as well as LHC constraints including sparticle searches and the mass of the Higgs boson, recent direct limits on spin-independent and -dependent dark matter scattering from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, the indirect constraints from Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. on dark matter annihilations to photons in dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the Galactic Centre, and the IceCube limits on muons from annihilations to neutrinos in the Sun. For representative values of $\tan \beta$ and $A_0$ we map in detail the Planck-compatible strips in CMSSM parameter planes, which exhibit multiple distinctive features for large $\tan \beta$, $A_0 = 0$ and $\mu > 0$, and identify portions of the strips that survive all the phenomenological constraints. We find that the most powerful constraint is that from $m_h$, followed by the LZ limit on spin-independent scattering, whereas sparticle searches at the LHC and indirect dark matter searches are less restrictive. Most of the surviving CMSSM parameter space features a Higgsino-like dark matter particle with a mass $\sim 1000-1100$ GeV, which could best be probed with future direct searches for dark matter scattering.

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J. Ellis, K. Olive, V. Spanos, et. al.
Tue, 1 Nov 22
41/100

Comments: 40 pages, 18 figures

Sequential hypothesis testing for Axion Haloscopes [CL]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.16095


The goal of this paper is to introduce a novel likelihood-based inferential framework for axion haloscopes which is valid under the commonly applied “rescanning” protocol. The proposed method enjoys short data acquisition times and a simple tuning of the detector configuration. Local statistical significance and power are computed analytically, avoiding the need of burdensome simulations. Adequate corrections for the look-elsewhere effect are also discussed. The performance of our inferential strategy is compared with that of a simple method which exploits the geometric probability of rescan. Finally, we exemplify the method with an application to a HAYSTAC type axion haloscope.

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A. Rosso, S. Algeri and J. Conrad
Mon, 31 Oct 22
48/60

Comments: 14 pages, 12 figures

Secondary GeV-TeV emission from ultra-high-energy cosmic rays accelerated by GRB 221009A [HEAP]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.14243


The origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) remains elusive. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the best candidates able to meet the stringent energy requirements needed for particle acceleration to such high energies. If UHECRs were accelerated by the central engine of GRB 221009A, it might be possible to detect secondary photons and neutrinos as the UHECRs travel from the source to the Earth. Here we attempt to interpret some of the early publicly available data connected to this burst. If the reported early GeV-TeV detection was produced by secondary emission from UHECRs it probably indicates that UHECRs reached energies $> 10^{21}$ eV and that GRB 221009A exploded inside a magnetic void with intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) strength $B \leq 3 \times 10^{-16}$ G. In order to understand the entire energy deposition mechanism, we propose to search existing and future Fermi-LAT data for secondary emission arriving over larger spatial scales and longer time-scales. This strategy might help clarify the origin of UHECRs, constrain the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) strength along this line of sight and start to quantify the fraction of magnetic voids around GRBs.

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N. Mirabal
Thu, 27 Oct 22
52/55

Comments: 2 pages, submitted to MNRAS

Searching for neutrinos from solar flares across solar cycles 23 and 24 with the Super-Kamiokande detector [SSA]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/2210.12948


Neutrinos associated with solar flares (solar-flare neutrinos) provide information on particle acceleration mechanisms during the impulsive phase of solar flares. We searched using the Super-Kamiokande detector for neutrinos from solar flares that occurred during solar cycles $23$ and $24$, including the largest solar flare (X28.0) on November 4th, 2003. In order to minimize the background rate we searched for neutrino interactions within narrow time windows coincident with $\gamma$-rays and soft X-rays recorded by satellites. In addition, we performed the first attempt to search for solar-flare neutrinos from solar flares on the invisible side of the Sun by using the emission time of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). By selecting twenty powerful solar flares above X5.0 on the visible side and eight CMEs whose emission speed exceeds $2000$ $\mathrm{km \, s^{-1}}$ on the invisible side from 1996 to 2018, we found two (six) neutrino events coincident with solar flares occurring on the visible (invisible) side of the Sun, with a typical background rate of $0.10$ ($0.62$) events per flare in the MeV-GeV energy range. No significant solar-flare neutrino signal above the estimated background rate was observed. As a result we set the following upper limit on neutrino fluence at the Earth $\mathit{\Phi}<1.1\times10^{6} \mathrm{cm^{-2}}$ at the $90\%$ confidence level for the largest solar flare. The resulting fluence limits allow us to constrain some of the theoretical models for solar-flare neutrino emission.

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K. Okamoto, K. Abe, Y. Hayato, et. al.
Tue, 25 Oct 22
6/111

Comments: 36 pages, 18 figures, 9 tables