Speaker
Description
NEWS-G (New Experiments With Spheres-Gas) is a rare event search experiment using Spherical Proportional Counters (SPCs). Primarily designed for the direct detection of dark matter, this technology also has appealing features for Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CE$\nu$NS) studies and, potentially, searches for neutrinoless double beta decay. A study to assess the feasibility of observing CE$\nu$NS at a nuclear reactor will be presented.
Both direct dark matter detection and CE$\nu$NS consist of nuclear recoils from elastic scatters. The nuclear quenching factor, defined as the ratio of the measured energy induced by a nuclear recoil and an electronic recoil of the same energy, is a property of the target material and must be determined. Nuclear quenching factor measurements in a neon based gas mixture were performed at TUNL (Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory) using a neutron beam and preliminary results will be presented.