The BDX-MINI detector for Light Dark Matter search at JLab

TL;DR

The paper presents the design, implementation, and testing of the compact BDX-MINI detector at Jefferson Lab, optimized for light dark matter detection, demonstrating stable performance over six months.

Contribution

It introduces a scaled-down detector prototype for light dark matter searches, validating its design and stability in a real experimental environment.

Findings

Detector operated stably for six months

Successfully identified penetrating particles and neutrinos

Validated design for future larger-scale experiments

Abstract

This paper describes the design and performance of a compact detector, BDX-MINI, that incorporates all features of a concept that optimized the detection of light dark matter produced by electrons in a beam dump. It represents a reduced version of the future BDX experiment expected to run at JLAB. BDX-MINI was exposed to penetrating particles produced by a 2.176 GeV electron beam incident on the beam dump of Hall A at Jefferson Lab. The detector consists of 30.5 kg of PbWO4 crystals with sufficient material following the beam dump to eliminate all known particles except neutrinos. The crystals are read out using silicon photomultipliers. Completely surrounding the detector are a passive layer of tungsten and two active scintillator veto systems, which are also read out using silicon photomultipliers. The design was validated and the performance of the robust detector was shown to be stable during a six month period during which the detector was operated with minimal access.