GEM-based detectors for direct detection of low-mass WIMP, solar axions and narrow resonances (quarks)

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development and experimental testing of GEM-based gaseous detectors designed for direct detection of low-mass WIMPs, solar axions, and narrow resonances, emphasizing their potential in dark matter and particle physics research.

Contribution

It introduces novel GEM detector configurations without plastic insulators and demonstrates their application in detecting low-mass WIMPs, axions, and narrow resonances through experimental results with various gas mixtures.

Findings

First measurement of photoelectron cloud distributions in GEM detectors.

Successful detection of primary scintillations from alpha and beta particles.

Potential for GEM detectors in low-mass WIMP and axion searches.

Abstract

Gas electron multipliers (GEMs) with wire (WGEMs) or metal electrodes (MGEMs), which don't use any plastic insulators between electrodes are created. The chambers containing MGEMs (WGEMs) with pin-anodes are proposed as detectors for searching of spin-dependent interactions between Dark Matter (DM) particles and gases with nonzero-spin nuclei (1H, D2, 3He, 19F, 21Ne, 129Xe, 131Xe,etc.In this paper, we present a review of such chambers.As photosensitive addition we use of H2, C2H4, CF4, TMAE, etc. For investigation of the gas mixtures Ne+10%H2, H2(D2)+3ppmTMAE, the chamber containing WGEM with pin-anode detection system was constructed. In this paper we present the results of an experimental study of these gaseous mixtures exited by an alpha-source. Mixture of Ar + 40 ppm C2H4 and mixture 50% Xe + 50%CF4 have been investigated. The spatial distributions of photoelectron clouds produced by primary scintillations on alpha and beta-particle tracks, as well as the distributions of photoelectron clouds due to photons from avalanches at the pin-anode, have been measured for the first time. In our experiments as another filling of the chambers for search of low-mas WIMP (<10 GeV/c2), solar neutrino and solar axions with spin-dependent interaction we propose to use the mixtures: D2 +3ppmTMAE, 3He + 3%CH4, 21Ne + 10%H2, at pressure 10-17 bar. And in our experiment with liquid gases is used the mixtures with 19F (LAr + CF4, LXe + CF4) and mixture LCH4 + 40ppm TMAE. The time projection chamber (TPC) with the mixture D2 + 3ppmTMAE filling allow to search of spin-dependent interactions of solar axions and deuterium. As well as we present the detecting systems for search of narrow pp-resonances (quarks) in accelerators experiments. Keywords: MGEM, pin-anodes, WIMP, Axions, TPC, SD-interaction, energy 1-100 eV