Photo: Courtesy of Cary Kendziora
The cryostat and time projection chamber for the SCENE experiment (SCintillation Efficiency of Noble Elements) were recently installed at the FN Tandem Van de Graaff Accelerator at the University of Notre Dame. Neutrons emitted from a lithium-fluoride target produce recoiling argon nuclei – the same signature expected for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles – in the TPC and are tagged in liquid scintillator neutron detectors. In this way SCENE will measure the scintillation and ionization response of argon to nuclear recoils of different energies, key information needed to properly understand noble liquid dark matter detectors such as Darkside. SCENE will acquire two weeks of beam data starting November 26.
– Ben Loer