Updates from NuDot: Double-Beta Decay with Direction Reconstruction in Liquid Scintillator (2023)

Undergraduate: Sarah Vickers

Faculty Advisor: Julieta Gruszko
Department: Physics & Astronomy

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Future neutrinoless double beta-decay experiments using kilo-ton scale liquid scintillator detectors will require new background-reduction techniques. Otherwise-irreducible backgrounds such as solar neutrino scattering can be identified by their event topology using Cherenkov light signals. NuDot is a half-ton prototype aiming to demonstrate this technique, using precision timing to separate Cherenkov and scintillation signals in 1 to 2 MeV beta particles. NuDot is currently undergoing upgrades and a move from its current location, at the MIT Bates Research and Engineering Center, to continue its surface operation phase at Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory. The goal of this surface data-taking campaign is to demonstrate Cherenkov light-based directional reconstruction with a collimated beta calibration source. Updates will be presented on NuDot's commissioning and the design and implementation of magnetic shielding for the experiment. Updates will also be presented on a new testing campaign of perovskite-based quantum-dot-loaded liquid scintillators.

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