POTENTIAL DARK-MATTER DETECTOR - THE DETECTION OF LOW-ENERGY NEUTRONS BY SUPERFLUID HE-3

被引:53
作者
BRADLEY, DI
BUNKOV, YM
COUSINS, DJ
ENRICO, MP
FISHER, SN
FOLLOWS, MR
GUENAULT, AM
HAYES, WM
PICKETT, GR
SLOAN, T
机构
[1] School of Physics and Chemistry, Lancaster University
关键词
D O I
10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.1887
中图分类号
O4 [物理学];
学科分类号
0702 ;
摘要
Using an existing experiment we have demonstrated in a pilot study that superfluid He-3 at 100 mu K can be used as a nuclear recoil detector sensitive to neutron and gamma interactions depositing energies down to a few hundred eV. The deposited energy is converted to He-3 quasiparticles which are detected by their damping effect on a vibrating wire resonator in the liquid. The system can be calibrated independently but a convenient fixed point is provided by the exothermic reaction n + He-3(2) = p + H-3(1) + 764 keV. Given the great potential for improvement we propose that the system might make a sensitive weakly interacting massive particle detector.
引用
收藏
页码:1887 / 1890
页数:4
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