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Cappuzzello, F., Rea, C., Bonaccorso, A., Bondi, M., Carbone, D., Cavallaro, M., et al. (2012). New structures in the continuum of C-15 populated by two-neutron transfer. Phys. Lett. B, 711(5), 347–352.
Abstract: The C-13(O-18,O-16)C-15 reaction has been studied at 84 MeV incident energy. The ejectiles have been detected at forward angles and C-15 excitation energy spectra have been obtained up to about 20 MeV. Several known bound and resonant states of C-15 have been identified together with two unknown structures at 10.5 MeV (FWHM = 2.5 MeV) and 13.6 MeV (FWHM = 2.5 MeV). Calculations based Oil the removal of two uncorrelated neutrons from the projectile describe a significant part of the continuum observed in the energy spectra. In particular the structure at 10.5 MeV is dominated by a resonance of C-15 near the C-13 + n + n threshold. Similar structures are found in nearby nuclei such as C-14 and Be-11.
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XENON100 Collaboration(Aprile, E. et al), & Orrigo, S. E. A. (2013). The neutron background of the XENON100 dark matter search experiment. J. Phys. G, 40(11), 115201–17pp.
Abstract: TheXENON100 experiment, installed underground at the LaboratoriNazionali del Gran Sasso, aims to directly detect dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) via their elastic scattering off xenon nuclei. This paper presents a study on the nuclear recoil background of the experiment, taking into account neutron backgrounds from (alpha, n) reactions and spontaneous fission due to natural radioactivity in the detector and shield materials, as well as muon-induced neutrons. Based on MonteCarlo simulations and using measured radioactive contaminations of all detector components, we predict the nuclear recoil backgrounds for the WIMP search results published by theXENON100 experiment in 2011 and 2012, 0.11(-0.04)(+0.08) events and 0.17(-0.07)(+0.12) events, respectively, and conclude that they do not limit the sensitivity of the experiment.
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Orrigo, S. E. A. et al, Rubio, B., Agramunt, J., Algora, A., & Molina, F. (2014). Observation of the beta-Delayed gamma-Proton Decay of Zn-56 and its Impact on the Gamow-Teller Strength Evaluation. Phys. Rev. Lett., 112(22), 222501–5pp.
Abstract: We report the observation of a very exotic decay mode at the proton drip line, the beta-delayed gamma-proton decay, clearly seen in the beta decay of the T-z = -2 nucleus Zn-56. Three gamma-proton sequences have been observed after the beta decay. Here this decay mode, already observed in the sd shell, is seen for the first time in the f p shell. Both. and proton decays have been taken into account in the estimation of the Fermi and Gamow-Teller strengths. Evidence for fragmentation of the Fermi strength due to strong isospin mixing is found.
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Rubio, B. et al, Orrigo, S. E. A., Montaner-Piza, A., Agramunt, J., Algora, A., & Molina, F. (2014). Beta Decay Study of the T-z =-2 Zn-56 Nucleus and the Determination of the Half-Lives of a Few fp-shell Nuclei. Nucl. Data Sheets, 120, 37–40.
Abstract: This paper concerns the experimental study of the beta decay properties of few proton-rich fp-shell nuclei. The nuclei were produced at GANIL in fragmentation reactions, separated with the LISE spectrometer and stopped in an implantation detector surrounded by Ge detectors. The beta-delayed gammas, beta-delayed protons and the exotic beta-delayed gamma-proton emission have been studied. Preliminary results are presented. The decay of the T-z = -2 nucleus Zn-56 has been studied in detail. Information from the beta-delayed protons and beta-delayed gammas has been used to deduce the decay scheme. The exotic beta-delayed gamma-proton decay has been observed for the first time in the fp-shell. The interpretation of the data was made possible thanks to the detailed knowledge of the mirror Charge Exchange (CE) process and the gamma de-excitation of the states in Co-56, the mirror nucleus of Cu-56.
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XENON100 Collaboration(Aprile, E. et al), & Orrigo, S. E. A. (2014). Observation and applications of single-electron charge signals in the XENON100 experiment. J. Phys. G, 41(3), 035201–13pp.
Abstract: The XENON100 dark matter experiment uses liquid xenon in a time projection chamber (TPC) to measure xenon nuclear recoils resulting from the scattering of dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). In this paper, we report the observation of single-electron charge signals which are not related to WIMP interactions. These signals, which show the excellent sensitivity of the detector to small charge signals, are explained as being due to the photoionization of impurities in the liquid xenon and of the metal components inside the TPC. They are used as a unique calibration source to characterize the detector. We explain how we can infer crucial parameters for the XENON100 experiment: the secondary-scintillation gain, the extraction yield from the liquid to the gas phase and the electron drift velocity.
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XENON Collaboration(Aprile, E. et al), & Orrigo, S. E. A. (2014). Conceptual design and simulation of a water Cherenkov muon veto for the XENON1T experiment. J. Instrum., 9, P11006–20pp.
Abstract: XENON is a dark matter direct detection project, consisting of a time projection chamber (TPC) filled with liquid xenon as detection medium. The construction of the next generation detector, XENON1T, is presently taking place at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy. It aims at a sensitivity to spin-independent cross sections of 2.10(47) cm(2) for WIMP masses around 50 GeV/c(2), which requires a background reduction by two orders of magnitude compared to XENON100, the current generation detector. An active system that is able to tag muons and muon-induced backgrounds is critical for this goal. A water Cherenkov detector of similar to 10m height and diameter has been therefore developed, equipped with 8 inch photomultipliers and cladded by a reflective foil. We present the design and optimization study for this detector, which has been carried out with a series of Monte Carlo simulations. The muon veto will reach very high detection efficiencies for muons (> 99.5%) and showers of secondary particles from muon interactions in the rock (> 70%). Similar efficiencies will be obtained for XENONnT, the upgrade of XENON1T, which will later improve the WIMP sensitivity by another order of magnitude. With the Cherenkov water shield studied here, the background from muon-induced neutrons in XENON1T is negligible.
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XENON100 Collaboration(Aprile, E. et al), & Orrigo, S. E. A. (2014). First axion results from the XENON100 experiment. Phys. Rev. D, 90(6), 062009–7pp.
Abstract: We present the first results of searches for axions and axionlike particles with the XENON100 experiment. The axion-electron coupling constant, g(Ae), has been probed by exploiting the axioelectric effect in liquid xenon. A profile likelihood analysis of 224.6 live days x 34-kg exposure has shown no evidence for a signal. By rejecting g(Ae) larger than 7.7 x 10(-12) (90% C. L.) in the solar axion search, we set the best limit to date on this coupling. In the frame of the DFSZ and KSVZ models, we exclude QCD axions heavier than 0.3 and 80 eV/c(2), respectively. For axionlike particles, under the assumption that they constitute the whole abundance of dark matter in our galaxy, we constrain gAe to be lower than 1 x 10(-12) (90% C.L.) for masses between 5 and 10 keV/c(2).
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Fujita, Y., Rubio, B., Adachi, T., Blank, B., Fujita, H., Gelletly, W., et al. (2015). Gamow-Teller excitations studied by weak and strong interactions. Acta Phys. Pol. B, 46(3), 657–668.
Abstract: Studying weak nuclear responses, especially the Gamow-Teller (GT) transitions starting from stable as well as unstable nuclei, provide crucial and critical information on nuclear structure. Therefore, the study of GT transitions is a key issue in nuclear physics and also nuclear-astrophysics. Under the assumption of isospin symmetry, it is expected that the structure of mirror nuclei and the GT transitions starting from their ground states are identical. We have studied the corresponding GT transitions starting from T-z = +/- 1 and +/- 2 p f -shell nuclei, respectively, by means of hadronic (He-3,t) charge-exchange reactions and mirror beta decays. The results on GT strength distributions measured in beta decays and (He-3,t) reactions performed at an intermediate incident energy of 140 MeV/nucleon and 0 degrees are compared. The combined results help provide an understanding of nuclear structure of nuclei far-from-stability.
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Orrigo, S. E. A. et al, Rubio, B., Agramunt, J., Algora, A., & Molina, F. (2015). β-delayed γ-proton decay in 56Zn: analysis of the charged-particle spectrum. Acta Phys. Pol. B, 46(3), 709–712.
Abstract: A study of the beta decay of the proton-rich T-z = 2 nucleus Zn-56 has been reported in a recent publication. A rare and exotic decay mode, beta-delayed gamma-proton decay, has been observed there for the first time in the fp shell. Here, we expand on some of the details of the data analysis, focussing on the charged particle spectrum.
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XENON Collaboration(Aprile, E. et al), & Orrigo, S. E. A. (2015). Search for Event Rate Modulation in XENON100 Electronic Recoil Data. Phys. Rev. Lett., 115(9), 091302–6pp.
Abstract: We have searched for periodic variations of the electronic recoil event rate in the (2-6) keVenergy range recorded between February 2011 and March 2012 with the XENON100 detector, adding up to 224.6 live days in total. Following a detailed study to establish the stability of the detector and its background contributions during this run, we performed an unbinned profile likelihood analysis to identify any periodicity up to 500 days. We find a global significance of less than 1 sigma for all periods, suggesting no statistically significant modulation in the data. While the local significance for an annual modulation is 2.8 sigma, the analysis of a multiple-scatter control sample and the phase of the modulation disfavor a dark matter interpretation. The DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation interpreted as a dark matter signature with axial-vector coupling of weakly interacting massive particles to electrons is excluded at 4.8 sigma.
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