Modelling the delayed single and few electron background in XENONnT

Umesh, Keerthana (2024) Modelling the delayed single and few electron background in XENONnT. Bachelor's Thesis, Physics.

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Abstract

The search for dark matter in the past few years has shifted from WIMP searches to alternative candidates in the low mass regime. The XENONnT experiment aims to detect dark matter particles in this mass range using a liquid xenon target within a dual-phase time projection chamber capable of reconstructing the 3D position and energy of particle interactions. A challenge in this search is the precise characterization and mitigation of background signals that could obscure potential dark matter interactions. Dual-phase time projection chambers exhibit a persistent rate of signals corresponding to single and few electron emissions in the detector. Lacking a thorough understanding of their phenomenology, these limit our ability to distinguish between a small signal background and a small signal from low mass dark matter. This thesis takes preliminary steps to model these single and few electron signals using previous characterization studies in similar detectors. A novel approach is proposed, where these emissions are modeled as a function of all preceding energetic interactions in the detector. This model extends to longer (i.e. delayed) time ranges than previous attempts, and shows promise in being an effective background model with some further development, thereby enhancing the sensitivity of low mass dark matter searches with XENONnT.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor's Thesis)
Supervisor name:	Aalbers, J.
Degree programme:	Physics
Thesis type:	Bachelor's Thesis
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2024 08:16
Last Modified:	19 Jul 2024 08:16
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/33361

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