Abstract: Silicon based devices can extend PET-MR and SPECT-MR imaging to applications, where their advantages in performance outweigh benefits of high statistical counts. Silicon is in many ways an excellent detector material with numerous advantages, among others: excellent energy and spatial resolution, mature processing technology, large signal to noise ratio, relatively low price, availability, versatility and malleability. The signal in silicon is also immune to effects of magnetic field at the level normally used in MR devices. Tests in fields up to 7 T were performed in a study to determine effects of magnetic field on positron range in a silicon PET device. The curvature of positron tracks in direction perpendicular to the field's orientation shortens the distance between emission and annihilation point of the positron. The effect can be fully appreciated for a rotation of the sample for a fixed field direction, compressing range in all dimensions. A popular Ga-68 source was used showing a factor of 2 improvement in image noise compared to zero field operation. There was also a little increase in noise as the reconstructed resolution varied between 2.5 and 1.5 mm. A speculative applications can be recognized in both emission modalities, SPECT and PET. Compton camera is a subspecies of SPECT, where a silicon based scatter as a MR compatible part could inserted into the MR bore and the secondary detector could operate in less constrained environment away from the magnet. Introducing a Compton camera also relaxes requirements of the radiotracers used, extending the range of conceivable photon energies beyond 140.5 keV of the Tc-99m. In PET, one could exploit the compressed sub-millimeter range of positrons in the magnetic field. To exploit the advantage, detectors with spatial resolution commensurate to the effect must be used with silicon being an excellent candidate. Measurements performed outside of the MR achieving spatial resolution below 1 mm are reported.

Abstract: NEXT-DEMO is a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 detector, an electroluminescent time projection chamber that will search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136 using 100-150 kg of enriched xenon gas. NEXT-DEMO was built to prove the expected performance of NEXT-100, namely, energy resolution better than 1% FWHM at 2.5MeV and event topological reconstruction. In this paper we describe the prototype and its initial results. A resolution of 1.75% FWHM at 511 keV (which extrapolates to 0.8% FWHM at 2.5 MeV) was obtained at 10 bar pressure using a gamma-ray calibration source. Also, a basic study of the event topology along the longitudinal coordinate is presented, proving that it is possible to identify the distinct dE/dx of electron tracks in high-pressure xenon using an electroluminescence TPC.

Abstract: High-pressure xenon gas is an attractive detection medium for a variety of applications in fundamental and applied physics. In this paper we study the ionization and scintillation detection properties of xenon gas at 10 bar pressure. For this purpose, we use a source of alpha particles in the NEXT-DEMO time projection chamber, the large scale prototype of the NEXT-100 neutrinoless double beta decay experiment, in three different drift electric field configurations. We measure the ionization electron drift velocity and longitudinal diffusion, and compare our results to expectations based on available electron scattering cross sections on pure xenon. In addition, two types of measurements addressing the connection between the ionization and scintillation yields are performed. On the one hand we observe, for the first time in xenon gas, large event-by-event correlated fluctuations between the ionization and scintillation signals, similar to that already observed in liquid xenon. On the other hand, we study the field dependence of the average scintillation and ionization yields. Both types of measurements may shed light on the mechanism of electron-ion recombination in xenon gas for highly-ionizing particles. Finally, by comparing the response of alpha particles and electrons in NEXT-DEMO, we find no evidence for quenching of the primary scintillation light produced by alpha particles in the xenon gas.

Abstract: The “Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon Time-Projection Chamber” (NEXT) is intended to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe-136, which requires a severe suppression of potential backgrounds. An extensive screening and material selection process is underway for NEXT since the control of the radiopurity levels of the materials to be used in the experimental set-up is a must for rare event searches. First measurements based on Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry and gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background germanium detectors at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (Spain) are described here. Activity results for natural radioactive chains and other common radionuclides are summarized, being the values obtained for some materials like copper and stainless steel very competitive. The implications of these results for the NEXT experiment are also discussed.

Abstract: Annihilation of dark matter particles accumulated in the Sun would produce a flux of high-energy neutrinos whose prospects of detection in neutrino telescopes and detectors have been extensively discussed in the literature. However, for annihilations into Standard Model particles, there would also be a flux of neutrinos in the MeV range from the decays at rest of muons and positively charged pions. These low-energy neutrinos have never been considered before and they open the possibility to also constrain dark matter annihilation in the Sun into e(+)e(-), mu(+)mu(-) or light quarks. Here we perform a detailed analysis using the recent Super-Kamiokande data in the few tens of MeV range to set limits on the WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section for different annihilation channels and computing the evaporation rate of WIMPs from the Sun for all values of the scattering cross section in a consistent way.