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Deutsche Physikalische Gessellschaft IOP Institute of Physics

Discrimination of nuclear recoils from alpha particles with superheated liquids

F Aubin1,7, M Auger1,8, M-H Genest1,9, G Giroux1, R Gornea1,8, R Faust1, C Leroy1, L Lessard1, J-P Martin1, T Morlat1,10, M-C Piro1, N Starinski1, V Zacek1,12, B Beltran2, C B Krauss2, E Behnke3, I Levine3, T Shepherd3, P Nadeau4, U Wichoski4, S Pospisil5, I Stekl5, J Sodomka5, K Clark6,11, X Dai6, A Davour6, C Levy6, A J Noble6 and C Storey6

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The PICASSO collaboration observed for the first time a significant difference between the acoustic signals induced by neutrons and alpha particles in a detector based on superheated liquids. This new discovery offers the possibility of improved background suppression and could be especially useful for dark matter experiments. This new effect may be attributed to the formation of multiple bubbles on alpha tracks, compared to single nucleations created by neutron-induced recoils.


PACS

95.35.+d Dark matter (stellar, interstellar, galactic, and cosmological)

29.40.Gx Tracking and position-sensitive detectors

95.30.Cq Elementary particle processes

Subjects

Accelerators, beams and electromagnetism

Nuclear physics

Instrumentation and measurement

Particle physics and field theory

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 10 (October 2008)

Received 11 July 2008

Published 16 October 2008



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