Liquid xenon detectors for particle physics and astrophysics
Liquid xenon detectors for particle physics and astrophysics
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DOI：
10.1103/revmodphys.82.2053
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发表时间：
2010-07-29
影响因子：
44.1
通讯作者：
Doke, T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Aprile, E.;Doke, T.
本文综述了近20年来液体氙探测器的发展及其在粒子物理、天体物理和医学成像实验中的应用。首先，根据最新的理论和实验信息，总结了液体氙作为辐射探测介质的基本特性。在介绍了不同类型的液体氙探测器之后，回顾了过去、现在和将来使用液体氙来寻找罕见过程和在空间和医学中成像辐射的实验。每个应用程序都介绍了基本的科学动机和实验要求的调查，然后审查每个实验的基本特征和预期性能。在这十年内，以不同模式运行的大容量液体氙探测器似乎将有助于回答粒子物理学，天体物理学和宇宙学中一些最基本的问题，满足最苛刻的探测挑战。从仅基于液体氙（LXe）闪烁的探测器，例如在用于搜索罕见的“μ-> e γ”衰变的MEG实验中，目前操作中最大的液体氙探测器，以及在用于暗物质探测的XMASS实验中，到利用LXe的闪烁和电离的时间投影室类，例如在氙暗物质搜索实验和用于无中微子双β衰变的浓缩氙天文台中，预计在未来几年内将有无与伦比的性能和对物理学的重要贡献。
This article reviews the progress made over the last 20 years in the development and applications of liquid xenon detectors in particle physics, astrophysics, and medical imaging experiments. A summary of the fundamental properties of liquid xenon as radiation detection medium, in light of the most current theoretical and experimental information is first provided. After an introduction of the different type of liquid xenon detectors, a review of past, current, and future experiments using liquid xenon to search for rare processes and to image radiation in space and in medicine is given. Each application is introduced with a survey of the underlying scientific motivation and experimental requirements before reviewing the basic characteristics and expected performance of each experiment. Within this decade it appears likely that large volume liquid xenon detectors operated in different modes will contribute to answering some of the most fundamental questions in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, fulfilling the most demanding detection challenges. From detectors based solely on liquid xenon (LXe) scintillation, such as in the MEG experiment for the search of the rare "mu -> e gamma" decay, currently the largest liquid xenon detector in operation, and in the XMASS experiment for dark matter detection, to the class of time projection chambers which exploit both scintillation and ionization of LXe, such as in the XENON dark matter search experiment and in the Enriched Xenon Observatory for neutrinoless double beta decay, unrivaled performance and important contributions to physics in the next few years are anticipated.