Speaker
Description
We propose a technique for an ultra-low energy nuclear-recoil measurement in liquid xenon using thermal neutron capture. The measurement uses the recoils imparted to xenon nuclei during the de-excitation process following neutron capture, where the promptly emitted $\gamma$ cascade can leave the nuclei with up to $0.3$ keV$_\text{nr}$ of recoil energy. A successful measurement of the quanta yields below this point will contribute to a greater sensitivity for liquid xenon experiments that will benefit from a lower energy threshold, mainly those searching for light WIMPs and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. We describe the proposed measurement and its feasibility for a small (sub-kilogram) LXe detector that is optimized for a high scintillation gain, and a pulsed neutron source.
