First Event-by-Event Identification of Cherenkov Radiation from Sub-Mev Particles in Liquid Argon
This Letter reports the event-by-event observation of Cherenkov light from sub-MeV electrons in a high scintillation light-yield liquid argon detector by the coherent CAPTAIN-Mills (CCM) experiment. The CCM200 detector, located at Los Alamos National Laboratory, instruments seven tons (fiducial volume) of liquid argon with 200 eight-inch photomultiplier tubes, 80% of which are coated in a wavelength-shifting material and the remaining 20% are uncoated. In the prompt time region of an event, defined as -6≤t<0 ns relative to the event start time t=0, the uncoated photomultiplier tubes are primarily sensitive to visible Cherenkov photons. Using gamma rays from a ^{22}Na source for production of sub-MeV electrons, we isolated prompt Cherenkov light with >5σ confidence and developed a selection to obtain a low-background electromagnetic sample. This is the first event-by-event observation of Cherenkov photons from sub-MeV electrons in a high-yield scintillator detector and represents a milestone in low-energy particle detector development.
Authors
- W. C. Louis
- A. M. Szelc
- R. Mahapatra
- M. H. Shaevitz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7436-8655)
- N. Kamp
- J. M. Conrad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6393-0438)
- E. Dunton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5630-8651)
- J. R. Distel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7621-0165)
- E.-C. Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1857-980X)
- H. Ray
- A. Thompson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9235-0846)
- B. Dutta
- J. Mirabal
- P. deNiverville
- Michal Mocko
- V. Pandey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3082-7987)
- D. A. Newmark (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7033-2703)
- K. Knickerbocker
- R. T. Thornton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9589-4606)
- M. Chavez-Estrada
- J. Boissevain
- L. Bugel
- C. Taylor
- E. Guardincerri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7703-9988)
- Eric Logan Renner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8161-8026)
- R. L. Cooper
- Sandra Biedron
- Colton O'Connor
- T. J. Schaub (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1214-1164)
- M. Borrego
- A. A. Aguilar-Arevalo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9279-3375)
- D. Poulson
- William Thompson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1893-240X)
- R. G. Van de Water (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1573-327X)
- A. Schneider (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0895-3477)
- M. Tripathi
- D. E. Fields
- W. E. Sondheim
- D. Smith
- J. C. D’Olivo
- M. Gold (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3743-693X)
- D. Kim
- R. Van Berg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1030-7957)
- C. F. Macias-Acevedo
- J. Mezzetti
Institutions
- New Mexico State University (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (US)
- University of New Mexico (US)
- University of South Dakota (US)
- Mitchell Institute (US)
- University of Florida (US)
- Aeron LifeCycles (United States) (US)
- AeroVironment (United States) (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University (US)
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX)
- Texas A&M University (US)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-09-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/bklh-w3dn
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.88