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Ott, R. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Ott, R. A..

Constraints on neutrino lifetime from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

The long baseline between Earth and the Sun makes solar neutrinos an excellent test beam for exploring possible neutrino decay. The signature of such decay would be an energy-dependent distortion of the traditional survival probability which can be fit for using well-developed and high-precision analysis methods. Here a model including neutrino decay is fit to all three phases of $^{8}\mathrm{B}$ solar neutrino data taken by the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). This fit constrains the lifetime of neutrino mass state ${{\nu}}_{2}$ to be > $8.08\times{}{10}^{{-}5}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{eV}$ at 90% confidence. An analysis combining this SNO result with those from other solar neutrino experiments results in a combined limit for the lifetime of mass state ${{\nu}}_{2}$ of > $1.92\times{}{10}^{{-}3}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{eV}$ at 90% confidence.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for neutron-antineutron oscillations at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Tests on B–L symmetry breaking models are important probes to search for new physics. One proposed model with Δ(B–L)=2 involves the oscillations of a neutron to an antineutron. In this paper, a new limit on this process is derived for the data acquired from all three operational phases of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment. The search concentrated on oscillations occurring within the deuteron, and 23 events were observed against a background expectation of 30.5 events. These translated to a lower limit on the nuclear lifetime of 1.48 × 10 31 yr at 90% C.L. when no restriction was placed on the signal likelihood space (unbounded). Alternatively, a lower limit on the nuclear lifetime was found to be 1.18 × 10 31 yr at 90% C.L. when the signal was forced into a positive likelihood space (bounded). Values for the free oscillation time derived from various models are also provided in this article. Furthermore, this is the first search for neutron-antineutron oscillation with the deuteron as a target.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

First Results of the LUX Dark Matter Experiment

LUX (Large Underground Xenon) is a dark matter direct detection experiment deployed at the 4850' level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, SD, operating a 370 kg dual-phase xenon TPC. Results of the first WIMP search run were presented in late 2013, for the analysis of 85.3 live-days with a fiducial volume of 118 kg, taken during the period of April to August 2013. The experiment exhibited a sensitivity to spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering with a minimum upper limit on the cross section of 7.6×10 -46 cm 2 at a WIMP mass of 33 GeV/c 2 , thus becoming the world's leading WIMP search result, in conflict with several previous claimed hints of discovery.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

FPGA-based trigger system for the LUX dark matter experiment

LUX is a two-phase (liquid/gas) xenon time projection chamber designed to detect nuclear recoils resulting from interactions with dark matter particles. Signals from the detector are processed with an FPGA-based digital trigger system that analyzes the incoming data in real-time, with just a few microsecond latency. The system enables first pass selection of events of interest based on their pulse shape characteristics and 3D localization of the interactions. It has been shown to be >99% efficient in triggering on S2 signals induced by only few extracted liquid electrons. It is continuously and reliably operating since its full underground deployment in early 2013. This document is an overview of the systems capabilities, its inner workings, and its performance.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Tritium calibration of the LUX dark matter experiment

Here, we present measurements of the electron-recoil (ER) response of the LUX dark matter detector based upon 170,000 highly pure and spatially uniform tritium decays. We reconstruct the tritium energy spectrum using the combined energy model and find good agreement with expectations. We report the average charge and light yields of ER events in liquid xenon at 180 and 105 V/cm and compare the results to the NEST model. We also measure the mean charge recombination fraction and its fluctuations, and we investigate the location and width of the LUX ER band. These results provide input to a reanalysis of the LUX run 3 weakly interacting massive particle search.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

The LUX experiment

We present the status and prospects of the LUX experiment, which employs approximately 300 kg of two-phase xenon to search for WIMP dark matter interactions. The LUX detector was commissioned at the surface laboratory of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD, between December 2011 and February 2012 and the detector has been operating underground since January, 2013. These proceedings review the results of the commissioning run as well as the status of underground data-taking.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗