| Abstract: |
Low background, keV-scale nuclear-recoil detectors are used in both dark matter and neutrino experiments. Of the many competing technologies, bubble chambers have the unique features of intrinsic rejection of electron recoil backgrounds, and versatility in the choice of the nuclear target. Recently, they have been used most prominently by PICO and others in searches for spin-dependent dark matter nucleon couplings using fluorinated liquids, with a few-keV nuclear recoil detection threshold. However, bubble nucleation by electron tracks is even further suppressed in noble-liquids, raising the possibility of background-free operation with a sub-keV nuclear recoil threshold, below the reach of the current generation of experiments. To take advantage of this, the Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) collaboration in currently constructing physics-capable noble-liquid bubble chambers with potential physics reach in the search for GeV-scale dark matter, and in searches for beyond the standard model physics using reactor neutrino coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CEvNS). |
