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Biedron, S.

Publications and source records attributed to Biedron, S..

9 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Testing meson portal dark sector solutions to the MiniBooNE anomaly at the Coherent CAPTAIN Mills experiment

A solution to the MiniBooNE excess invoking rare three-body decays of the charged pions and kaons to new states in the MeV mass scale was recently proposed as a dark-sector explanation. This class of solution illuminates the fact that, while the charged pions were focused in the target-mode run, their decay products were isotropically suppressed in the beam-dump-mode run in which no excess was observed. This suggests a new physics solution correlated to the mesonic sector. We investigate an extended set of phenomenological models that can explain the MiniBooNE excess as a dark sector solution, utilizing long-lived particles that might be produced in the three-body decays of the charged mesons and the two-body anomalous decays of the neutral mesons. Over a broad set of interactions with the long-lived particles, we show that these scenarios can be compatible with constraints from LSND, KARMEN, and MicroBooNE, and evaluate the sensitivity of the ongoing and future data taken by the Coherent CAPTAIN Mills experiment to a potential discovery in this parameter space. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

First Leptophobic Dark Matter Search from the Coherent–CAPTAIN-Mills Liquid Argon Detector

We report the first results of a search for leptophobic dark matter (DM) from the Coherent–CAPTAIN-Mills (CCM) liquid argon (LAr) detector. An engineering run with 120 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) and 17.9 × 10 20 protons on target (POT) was performed in fall 2019 to study the characteristics of the CCM detector. The operation of this 10-ton detector was strictly light based with a threshold of 50 keV and used coherent elastic scattering off argon nuclei to detect DM. Despite only 1.5 months of accumulated luminosity, contaminated LAr, and nonoptimized shielding, CCM’s first engineering run has already achieved sensitivity to previously unexplored parameter space of light dark matter models with a baryonic vector portal. With an expected background of 115 005 events, we observe 115 005 + 16.5 events which is compatible with background expectations. For a benchmark mediator-to-DM mass ratio of m V B =m χ = 2.1, DM masses within the range 9 MeV ≲ m χ ≲ 50 MeV are excluded at 90% C. L. in the leptophobic model after applying the Feldman-Cousins test statistic. CCM’s upgraded run with 200 PMTs, filtered LAr, improved shielding, and 10 times more POT will be able to exclude the remaining thermal relic density parameter space of this model, as well as probe new parameter space of other leptophobic DM models.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Electron Bombardment of ZnTe EO Bunch Charge Detector for Signal Lifetime Studies in Radiation Environment

Electro-optic detection of bunch charge distribution utilizing the nonlinear Pockel's and Kerr effect of materials has been implemented at various facilities as a method of passive detection for beam preservation throughout characterization. Most commonly, the inorganic II-VI material ZnTe is employed due to it's strong Pockel's EO effect and relatively high temporal resolution (~90 fs). Despite early exploration of radiation damage on ZnTe in exploration of semi-conductor materials in the 1970's, full characterization of EO response over radiation lifetime has yet to be performed. The following poster presents a method for ZnTe crystal characterization studies throughout radiation exposure at various energies and dosages by analyzing the changes in index of refraction including bulk uniformity, and THz signal response changes.

Williams, J.↗
DOE OSTI2013

Non-Invasive Beam Detection in a High-Average Power Electron Accelerator

For a free-electron laser (FEL) to work effectively the electron beam quality must meet exceptional standards. In the case of an FEL operating at infrared wavelengths in an amplifier configuration the critical phase space tends to be in the longitudinal direction. Achieving high enough longitudinal phase space density directly from the electron injector system of such an FEL is difficult due to space charge effects, thus one needs to manipulate the longitudinal phase space once the beam energy reaches a sufficiently high value. However, this is fraught with problems. Longitudinal space charge and coherent synchrotron radiation can both disrupt the overall phase space, furthermore, the phase space disruption is exacerbated by the longitudinal phase space manipulation process required to achieve high peak current. To achieve and maintain good FEL performance one needs to investigate the longitudinal emittance and be able to measure it during operation preferably in a non-invasive manner. Using the electro-optical sampling (EOS) method, we plan to measure the bunch longitudinal profile of a high-energy (~120-MeV), high-power (~10kW or more FEL output power) beam.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗