Academic literature on the topic 'Neutron dark decay'

There exists a puzzling disagreement between the results for the neutron lifetime obtained in experiments using the beam technique versus those relying on the bottle method. A possible explanation of this discrepancy postulates the existence of a beyond-Standard-Model decay channel of the neutron involving new particles in the final state, some of which can be dark matter candidates. We review the current theoretical status of this proposal and discuss the particle physics models accommodating such a dark decay. We then elaborate on the efforts undertaken to test this hypothesis, summarizing the prospects for probing neutron dark decay channels in future experiments.

In January, 2018, Fornal and Grinstein proposed that a previously unobserved neutron decay branch to a dark matter particle (χ) could account for the discrepancy in the neutron lifetime observed in two different types of experiments. One of the possible final states discussed includes a single χ along with an e+e− pair. We use data from the UCNA (Ultracold Neutron Asymmetry) experiment to set limits on this decay channel. Coincident electron-like events are detected with ∼ 4π acceptance using a pair of detectors that observe a volume of stored Ultracold Neutrons (UCNs). We use the timing information of coincidence events to select candidate dark sector particle decays by applying a timing calibration and selecting events within a physically-forbidden timing region for conventional n → p + e- + ν̅e decays. The summed kinetic energy (Ee+e−) from such events is reconstructed and used to set limits, as a function of the χ mass, on the branching fraction for this decay channel.

Motivated by the neutron lifetime puzzle, it is proposed that neutrons may decay into new states yet to be observed. We review the neutron star constraints on dark fermions carrying unit baryon number with masses around 939 MeV, and discuss the interaction strengths required for the new particle. The possibility of neutrons decaying into three dark fermions is investigated. While up to six flavors of dark quarks with masses around 313 MeV can be compatible with massive pulsars, any such exotic states lighter than about 270 MeV are excluded by the existence of low-mass neutron stars around ∼1.2M⊙. Light dark quarks in the allowed mass range may form a halo surrounding normal neutron stars. We discuss the potential observable signatures of the halo during binary neutron star mergers.

Following up on a suggestion that decay to a dark matter fermion might explain the 4σ discrepancy in the neutron lifetime, we consider the implications of such a fermion on neutron star structure. We find that including it reduces the maximum neutron star mass to well below the observed masses. In order to recover stars with the observed masses, the (repulsive) self-interactions of the dark fermion would have to be stronger than those of the nucleon-nucleon interaction.

Recent proposals have suggested that a previously unknown decay mode of the neutron into a dark matter particle could solve the long lasting measurement problem of the neutron decay width. We show that, if the dark particle in neutron decay is the major component of the dark matter in the universe, this proposal is in disagreement with modern astrophysical data concerning neutron star masses.

Abstract The hypothesis that neutrons might decay into dark matter is explored using neutron stars as a testing ground. It is found that in order to obtain stars with masses at the upper end of those observed, the dark matter must experience a relatively strong self-interaction. Conservation of baryon number and energy then require that the star must undergo some heating, with a decrease in radius, leading to an increase in speed of rotation over a period of days.

Free neutron decay is the prototype for nuclear beta decay and other semileptonic weak particle decays. It provides important insights into the symmetries of the weak nuclear force. Neutron decay is important for understanding the formation and abundance of light elements in the early universe. The two main experimental approaches for measuring the neutron lifetime, the beam method and the ultracold neutron storage method, have produced results that currently differ by 9.8 ± 2.0 s. While this discrepancy probably has an experimental origin, a more exciting prospect is that it may be explained by new physics, with possible connections to dark matter. The experimental status of the neutron lifetime is briefly reviewed, with an emphasis on its implications for cosmology, astrophysics, and dark matter.

Inspired by the well-known anomaly in the lifetime of the neutron, we investigated its consequences inside neutron stars. We first assessed the viability of the neutron decay hypothesis suggested by Fornal and Grinstein within neutron stars, in terms of the equation of state and compatibility with observed properties. This was followed by an investigation of the constraint information on neutron star cooling that can be placed on the decay rate of the dark boson into standard model particles, in the context of various BSM ideas.

We discuss our recently proposed interpretation of the discrepancy between the bottle and beam neutron lifetime experiments as a sign of a dark sector. The difference between the outcomes of the two types of measurements is explained by the existence of a neutron dark decay channel with a branching fraction 1%. Phenomenologically consistent particle physics models for the neutron dark decay can be constructed and they involve a strongly self-interacting dark sector. We elaborate on the theoretical developments around this idea and describe the efforts undertaken to verify it experimentally.

L’écart entre les expériences dites du faisceau et de la bouteille mesurant la durée de vie du neutron libre pourrait être expliqué en considérant une nouvelle voie de désintégration du neutron en matière noire. Une telle décroissance pourrait être mis en lumière dans une sélection de noyaux radioactifs dans lesquels certains neutrons sont très faiblement liés au reste de la structure nucléaire. Dans le cas du noyau borroméen 6He, une décroissance en matière noire d’un des deux neutrons du halo produirait nécessairement les particules suivantes : 4He + n +x. Observer une émission de neutron corrélée à la décroissance de l’hélium 6 fournirait ainsi une signature claire et unique de création de matière noire. Unfaisceau intense 6He+ produit au Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds (GANIL)couplé au détecteur de neutron TETRA a permis d’établir une limite supérieure à l’existence de cette décroissance en matière noire dans l’hélium 6 à Brx <4:0 x 1010 >avec un degré de confiance de 95%. Cette limite expérimentale a également été traduite en une contrainte de l’ordre de Op105q pour la probabilité de décroissance en matière noire du neutron libre
Neutron dark decays have been suggested as a solution to the discrepancy between bottleand beam experiments, providing a dark matter candidate that can be searched for inhalo nuclei. The free neutron in the final state following the decay of 6He into 4He + n +x provides an exceptionally clean detection signature when combined with a high-efficiencyneutron detector. Using a high-intensity 6He beam at the Grand Accélérateur Nationald’Ions Lourds (GANIL), a search for a coincident neutron signal resulted in an upper limiton a dark decay branching ratio of Brx <4:0 x 1010 > with a 95% confidence level. Usingthe dark neutron decay model proposed originally by Fornal and Grinstein, we translatethis into an upper bound on a dark neutron branching ratio of Op105q, improving overglobal constraints by one to several orders of magnitude depending on m

Uno dei principali protagonisti della caccia alla Materia Oscura è il Progetto XENON presso i LNGS, con l'obiettivo di rivelare le WIMP. Forti dell'esperienza proveniente dalle precedenti fasi del Progetto, l'attuale esperimento XENON1T è il primo che contiene circa 3.2 t di xenon liquido, di cui circa 2 t costituiscono la massa attiva della TPC a doppia fase. E questa è la prima TPC con massa attiva superiore a 1 t e con il più basso livello di fondo tra tutti gli esperimenti di questo tipo. Nel 2017, con un tempo di esposizione di soli 34.2 giorni, XENON1T ha ottenuto uno dei miglior limiti di esclusione per la sezione d'urto di interazione WIMP-nucleo non dipendente dallo spin. Nella prima parte del presente lavoro di tesi, verifico la possibilità che il neutron generator (NG), una sorgente di neutroni per la calibrazione della risposta del rivelatore ai rinculi nucleari (NR), possa essere una sorgente di fondo per il rivelatore essendo posizionato vicino alla TPC. Dalla stima del rate di eventi in presenza o meno del NG, nessuna differenza è stata osservata per gli eventi da rinculo elettronico (ER) a bassa energia. Successivamente alla valutazione dell'attività di U238 e Th232 nei materiali del NG, è possibile stimare il fondo indotto da neutroni radiogenici atteso dal NG: poiché risulta essere due ordini di grandezza inferiore a quanto atteso dai materiali di costruzione del rivelatore, può essere considerato un contributo trascurabile. Nella parte finale della tesi si presentano tutte le possibili sorgenti di fondo per eventi ER nel rivelatore di XENON1T e la simulazione, con il programma GEANT4, di tale fondo. In particolare, è esaminata e discussa la nuova implementazione della simulazione per il doppio decadimento beta dell'isotopo Xe136. Lo stato dell'arte del confronto delle simulazioni Monte Carlo con i dati reali è mostrato alla fine del lavoro di tesi: i risultati preliminari evidenziano una buona conoscenza del fondo dell'ER nel rivelatore XENON1T.

The DarkSide program has delivered the first results on searches for dark matter with a target of ultra-pure low-radioactivity argon from underground sources (UAr) with the DarkSide-50 experiment, in operation at LNGS since 2013. The key element provided by the use of UAr is the strong reduction in activity of 39Ar relative to the atmospheric argon, which avoids the pile-up of events that would otherwise plague any argonbased events at the tonne scale and beyond. Thus the use of UAr enables the construction of very large scale dark matter detectors, able to combine the advantages of the unsegmented design and very strong rejection of electron recoils a↵orded by the pulse shape discrimination of liquid argon, thus able to probe the entire discovery space at high masses (>100 GeV/c2) prior to and through the onset of background from atmospheric neutrinos (the so called “neutrino floor”) in absence of any background from instrumental sources. The DarkSide Collaboration, which launched the DarkSide-50 program at LNGS, morphed to become the “Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration” (GADMC). The GADMC started a program for the complete exploration of the discovery space of high-mass dark matter consisting of the DarkSide-20k experiment, at the scale of a few tens of tonnes, that is going to be constructed at LNGS and expected in operation by 2023, and Argo, at the scale of a few hundred tonnes, and proposed for installation at SNOLAB. The full exploitation of the UAr target for high-mass dark matter searches required the development of very special technologies. The GADMC developed special photodetector modules (PDMs) made of assemblies of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and characterized by very high photon detection eciency, background much lower than traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), and dark noise lower than that of PMTs when operated near a temperature of 87 K. The GADMC also developed a special plan for the high-throughput extraction of UAr at special gas wells in Colorado, USA, with the Urania plant and for its purification in the novel cryogenic distillation column Aria, characterized by the presence of thousands of equilibrium stages and currently under installation in a mine shaft in Sardinia, Italy. The Aria column with its unprecedented height may be able to provide further isotopic depletion in 39Ar of the UAr target. Exploration of high-mass dark matter is one of the main thrusts for the discovery of new physics beyond the standard model. In this dissertation, I will focus on the possible use of the DarkSide technology to tackle two di↵erent but equally crucial problems, which may also lead to new discoveries: the search for low-mass (<10 GeV/c2) dark matter and the search for the neutrinoless double beta decay

Le travail présenté dans cette thèse porte sur la recherche de neutrino stérile à l'aide de désintégrations β dans les expériences SOX et TRISTAN. Le neutrino stérile est une particule hypothétique, solidement établi théoriquement, qui ne prendrait part à aucune interaction fondamentale, gravité mise à part. Étant entendu que le neutrino stérile se mélange avec les neutrinos actifs connus, l'existence de ces premiers peut être étudiée directement en laboratoire. L'expérience SOX a été conçue pour explorer l'existence d'un neutrino stérile d'une masse autour de l'électronvolt (eV). Un neutrino stérile avec une telle masse permettrait d'expliquer plusieurs anomalies observées à courte distance de sources (quelques mètres) lors de mesures d'oscillations de neutrinos de basses énergies (quelques MeV). SOX avait pour projet d'utiliser le détecteur de neutrinos solaire déjà existant Borexino, et d'observer un signal d'oscillation vers le stérile à l'intérieur même du volume actif du détecteur. La source radioactive de 5.5 PBq et positionnée à 8.5 m du centre du détecteur, émettrait des antineutrinos électroniques via la désintégration β du ¹⁴⁴Ce et du ¹⁴⁴Pr. Une des clés de l'observation de cette oscillation, est la connaissance précise de l'activité de la source. Une telle activité peut être déterminée en mesurant la chaleur dégagée par la source. C'est la raison pour laquelle l'INFN Genova et la TUM ont développé conjointement un calorimètre dédié. La chaleur dégagée par la radioactivité est alors captée par un échangeur puis transmise à un circuit d'eau étroitement contrôlé. Le calorimètre a été assemblé, optimisé puis étalonné avec succès. La perte de chaleur du circuit fut déterminée lors des mesures d'étalonnage grâce à un chauffage électrique. Des variations des conditions expérimentales et une isolation thermique sophistiquée ont permis d'opérer avec des pertes de chaleur négligeables. Il a ainsi été démontré que la puissance thermique de la source pouvait être estimée, en 5 jours seulement, avec une précision supérieure à 0,2%. Malheureusement, le programme SOX a dû être annulé. Le projet TRISTAN, quant à lui, tend à démontrer l'existence d'un neutrino stérile avec une masse de l'ordre du kilo-électronvolt (keV). Si le neutrino stérile à l'eV tente d'apporter une réponse aux différentes anomalies observées lors de mesures d'oscillation, le neutrino stérile au keV, en tant que potentiel candidat matière noire. Le projet TRISTAN cherche à mesurer l'empreinte de ce nouvel état de masse sur le spectre du tritium dans le cadre de l'expérience KATRIN. Cette dernière vise à déterminer la masse effective du neutrino (actif) en mesurant l'extrémité du spectre de tritium avec une excellente résolution et un faible taux de comptage. Une fois la mesure achevée, le détecteur de KATRIN sera modifié afin d'effectuer une mesure différentielle et intégrale de l'ensemble du spectre en tritium: c'est le projet TRISTAN. Le détecteur actuel sera remplacé par un nouveau détecteur de silicium à dérive (SDD) de 3500 pixels permettant une résolution de 3% à 6 keV et pouvant supporter un taux de comptage montant jusqu'à 10⁸ coups par seconde, activité maximum attendue. Un prototype a été testé avec succès et une première mesure de tritium a été réalisé au spectromètre de masse neutrino Troitsk afin d'étudier les erreurs systématiques et de développer des méthodes d'analyses pertinentes. Un premier ajustement cohérent du spectre tritium différentiel acquis lors de cette installation, a démontré la faisabilité du projet. TRISTAN lui-même est toujours en cours de développement mais les caractérisations du détecteur et les études de systématiques sont plus qu'encourageantes pour la poursuite du projet. La première investigation de neutrino stérile avec le détecteur de TRISTAN sur le site de KATRIN est prévue après la mesure de masse, en cours à Karlsruhe, aux alentours de 2024
The work presented in this thesis is about the sterile neutrino search with the two experiments SOX and TRISTAN based on the β-decay. Sterile neutrinos are theoretically well motivated particles that do not participate in any fundamental interaction except for the gravitation. With the help of these particles one could elegantly explain the origin of the neutrino mass, dark matter and the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. As sterile neutrinos can mix with the known active neutrinos, they could be discovered in laboratory searches. The SOX experiment was designed to search for a sterile neutrino with a mass in the eV-range. This particular mass range is motivated by several anomalous observations at short-baseline neutrino experiments that could be explained by an additional oscillation with a length in the order of meters that arises from an eV-scale sterile neutrino. For SOX it was planned to use the existing Borexino solar neutrino detector to search for an oscillation signal within the detector volume. The neutrinos are emitted from a 5.5 PBq electron-antineutrino source made of the β-decaying isotopes ¹⁴⁴Ce and ¹⁴⁴Pr, located at 8.5 m distance from the detector center. For the analysis of the signal it is crucial to know the source activity. This parameter is determined by measuring the decay heat of the source with a thermal calorimeter that was developed by TUM and INFN Genova. The decay heat is measured through the temperature increase of a well-defined water flow in a heat exchanger that surrounds the source. The calorimeter was assembled, optimized and characterized. Heat losses were determined through calibration measurements with an electrical heat source. Adjustable measurement conditions and an elaborate thermal insulation allowed an operation with negligible heat losses. It was proven that the power of a decaying source can be measured with <0.2% uncertainty in a single measurement that lasts ~5 days. Unfortunately the SOX experiment was canceled after a technological problem rendered the source production with the required activity and purity impossible. The TRISTAN project is an attempt to discover sterile neutrinos with masses in the order of keV. In contrast to eV-scale sterile neutrinos that are motivated by several anomalies observed in terrestrial experiments, the existence of sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range could resolve cosmological and astrophysical issues, as they are dark matter candidates. The TRISTAN project is an extension of the KATRIN experiment to search for the signature of keV-scale sterile neutrinos in the tritium β-spectrum. KATRIN itself is attempting to determine the effective neutrino mass by measuring the end point of the tritium spectrum at low counting rates. The KATRIN setup will be modified after the neutrino mass measurements are finished to conduct a differential and integral measurement of the entire tritium spectrum. This project is called TRISTAN. The current detector will be replaced by a novel 3500-pixel silicon drift detector system that has an outstanding energy resolution of a few hundred eV and can handle rates up to 10⁸ counts per second as they occur when the entire spectrum is scanned. Prototype detectors were successfully tested and first tritium data was taken at the Troitsk ν-mass spectrometer to study systematic effects and develop analysis methods. A successful fit of the differential tritium spectrum proved the feasibility of this approach. TRISTAN itself is still at an early stage, but the detector development and systematic studies are well on track and delivered so far encouraging results. The sterile neutrino search is scheduled after the KATRIN neutrino mass program is finished in ~2024

Au sein des interrogations actuelles de la physique contemporaine, celles de la nature de la matière noire et des propriétés des neutrinos comptent parmi les plus importantes. L'observation d'événements rares permettrait alors de répondre à ces questionnements. Avec sa chambre à projection temporelle contenant une cible de xénon liquide de 5,9 tonnes et son très faible bruit de fond, XENONnT se positionne comme un concurrent sérieux dans la recherche des WIMP, une particule candidate de la matière noire. Par son grand volume, le contrôle de la stabilité spatiale du détecteur est indispensable. L'utilisation du Kr83m comme source de calibration interne est adapté à la gamme en énergie des reculs de WIMP et à la dimension de l'instrument. De plus, l'isotope 136 naturellement présent dans le xénon liquide est une source de double désintégration beta. Il permet, en association avec le bruit de fond faible de XENONnT, de participer à la recherche de la désintégration double beta sans émission de neutrino dont l'observation permettrait de déterminer que le neutrino est une particule de Majorana. L'énergie de cette désintégration étant plus grande que celle attendue pour la recherche de matière noire, une méthode de reconstruction spécifique de ces événements à plus haute énergie a dû être développé en utilisant les données de calibration au Th232
Among the current questions of contemporary physics, those of the nature of dark matter and the properties of neutrinos are among the most important. The observation of rare events would then make it possible to answer these questions. With its time projection chamber containing a 5.9-ton liquid xenon target and its very low background noise, XENONnT is a serious competitor in the search for WIMPs, a candidate particle for dark matter. Due to its large volume, the control of the spatial stability of the detector is essential. The use of Kr83m as an internal calibration source is suitable for the WIMP recoil energy range and the instrument size. In addition, the isotope 136 naturally present in liquid xenon is a source of double beta decay. It allows, in association with the low background noise of XENONnT, to participate in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay emission, this observation would allow determining that the neutrino is a Majorana particle. The energy of this decay being larger than the one expected for the dark matter search, a specific reconstruction method for these higher energy events had to be developed using the Th232 calibration data