Comparative studies of silicon photomultipliers and traditional vacuum photomultiplier tubes

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are a new generation of semiconductor-based photon counting devices with the merits of low weight, low power consumption and low voltage operation, promising to meet the needs of space particle physics experiments. In this paper, comparative studies of SiPMs and traditional vacuum photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) have been performed regarding the basic properties of dark currents, dark counts and excess noise factors. The intrinsic optical crosstalk effect of SiPMs was evaluated.     

New CHOD detector for the NA62 experiment at CERN

The New CHOD is a scintillation hodoscope with a pad structure featuring a total of 148 counters. The signal from each pad is read out using wavelength-shifting fibers and two or four SensL SiPMs with a sensitive area of 3 × 3 mm². This photodetector has 4774 pixels 35 × 35 μm² in size. The key parameters (photon detection efficiency, dark current, crosstalk, and gain) were measured for 500 SiPMs.     

基于SiPM读出的塑料闪烁体探测器时间性能研究

研究了基于硅光电倍增管(SiPM)双端读出的面积为10 cm ×10 cm的薄塑料闪烁体探测器的时间性能。239Pu放射源测试结果显示:(1)在多支SiPM串连读出方式下,随着SiPM数量的增加,探测器时间分辨逐渐变好;(2)在固定12支SiPM数量不变的情况下,并联支路越多,探测器时间分辨越差;(3)采用快时间塑料闪烁体并增加其厚度,可有效提高探测器时间分辨;(4)采用比束斑尺寸更大的塑料闪烁体,可有效提高探测器时间分辨的位置均匀性;(5)对于1 mm厚的EJ232塑料闪烁体探测器,在单端12支SiPM串行连接的情况下,可获得好于131 ps的时间分辨。这一研究对RIBLL2起始时间探测器的升级改造具有重要的指导意义。     

Friedmann Cosmology with Bulk Viscosity: A Concrete Model for Dark Energy

The universe content is considered as a non-perfect fluid with bulk viscosity and can be described by a general equation of state (endowed some deviation from the conventionally assumed cosmic perfect fluid model). An explicitly bulk viscosity dark energy model is proposed to confront consistently with the current observationaldata sets by statistical analysis and is shown consistent with (not deviated away much from) the concordant Λ Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model by comparing the decelerating parameter. Also we compare our relatively simple viscosity dark energy model with a more complicated one by contrast with the concordant ΛCDM modeland find our model improves for the viscosity dark energy model building. Finally we discuss the perspectives of dark energy probes for the coming years with observations.     

Preliminary results for the design,fabrication,and performance of a backside-illuminated avalanche drift detector

The detection of low-level light is a key technology in various experimental scientific studies. As a photon detector, the silicon photomultiplier （SiPM） has gradually become an alternative to the photomultiplier tube （PMT） in many applications in high-energy physics, astroparticle physics, and medical imaging because of its high photon detection efficiency （PDE）, good resolution for single-photon detection, insensitivity to magnetic field, low operating voltage, compactness, and low cost. However, primarily because of the geometric fill factor, the PDE of most SiPMs is not very high; in particular, for those SiPMs with a high density of micro cells, the effective area is small, and the bandwidth of the light response is narrow. As a building block of the SiPM, the concept of the backside-illuminated avalanche drift detector （ADD） was first proposed by the Max Planck Institute of Germany eight years ago; the ADD is promising to have high PDE over the full energy range of optical photons, even ultraviolet light and X-ray light, and because the avalanche multiplication region is very small, the ADD is beneficial for the fabrication of large-area SiPMs. However, because of difficulties in design and fabrication, no significant progress had been made, and the concept had not yet been verified. In this paper, preliminary results in the design, fabrication, and performance of a backside-illuminated ADD are reported; the difficulties in and limitations to the backside-illuminated ADD are analyzed.     

Dynamical interactions of dark energy and dark matter:Yang-Mills condensate and QCD axions

We analyze a model of cold axion dark matter weakly coupled with a dark gluon condensate,reproducing dark energy.We first review how to recover the dark energy behavior using the functional renormalization group approach,and ground our study in the properties of the effective Lagrangian,to be determined non-perturbatively.Then,within the context of G_(SM)×SU(2)_D×U(1)_(P Q),we consider Yang-Mills condensate(YMC)interactions with QCD axions.We predict a transfer of dark energy density into dark matter density,that can be tested in the next generation of experiments dedicated to dark energy measurements.We obtain new bounds on the interactions between the Yang-Mills condensate and axion dark matter from Planck data:the new physics interaction scale related to the axion/gluon condensate mixing is constrained to be higher than the 10~6GeV energy scale.     

Investigation of ultracold atoms and molecules in a dark magneto-optical trap

In this paper,ultracold atoms and molecules in a dark magneto-optical trap(MOT) are studied via depumping the cesium cold atoms into the dark hyperfine ground state.The collision rate is reduced to 0.45s-1 and the density of the atoms is increased to 5.6×1011cm-3 when the fractional population of the atoms in the bright hyperfine ground state is as low as 0.15.The vibrational spectra of the ultracold cesium molecules are also studied in a standard MOT and in a dark MOT separately.The experimental results are analyzed by using the perturbative quantum approach.     

Silicon photomultiplier readout system for the ECAL in the PEBS and test results from the system

Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) have remarkable advantages for use in photo-detection. Compared with PMT, SiPM shows advantages of high gain, excellent time resolution, insensitivity to magnetic fields and a lower operating voltage. SiPMs from Hamamatsu are used in the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) sub-detector in the Positron Electron Balloon Spectrometer (PEBS) experiment, a balloon-borne spectrometer experiment aiming at the precise measurement of the cosmic-ray positron fraction. This paper introduces the evaluation and test results of several SiPM detector types, the dedicated front-end application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) electronics and the design of the data acquisition system (DAQ) system.     

Quadratic interaction effect on the dark energy density in the universe

In this study, we deal with the holographic model of interacting dark components of dark energy and dark matter quadratic case of the equation of state parameter(Eo S). The effective equations of states for the interacting holographic energy density are derived and the results are analyzed and compared with the solution of the linear form in the literature.The result of our work shows that the value of interaction term between dark components affects the fixed points at far future in the DE-dominated universe in the case of quadratic Eo S parameter; it is a different result from the linear case in the theoretical results in the literature, and as the Quintom scenario the equations of state had coincidence at the cosmological constant boundary of -1 from above to below.     

Entropy-Corrected Holographic Dark Energy

The holographic dark energy (HDE) is now an interesting candidate of dark energy, which has been studied extensively in the literature. In the derivation of HDE, the black hole entropy plays an important role. In fact, the entropy-area relation can be modified due to loop quantum gravity or other reasons. With the modified entropy-area relation, we propose the so-called ``entropy-corrected holographic dark energy' (ECHDE) in the present work. We consider many aspects of ECHDE and find some interesting results. In addition, we briefly consider the so-called ``entropy-corrected agegraphic dark energy' (ECADE).     

Effects of dark energy interacting with massive neutrinos and dark matter on universe evolution

In this paper we investigate the evolution of the cosmology model with dark energy interacting with massive neutrinos and dark matter. Using the numerical method to investigate the dynamical system, we find that the stronger the interaction between dark energy and dark matter, the lower the ratio of dark matter in the universe is; also, the stronger the interaction between dark energy and massive neutrinos, the lower the ratio of massive neutrinos in the universe is. On the other hand, the interaction between dark energy and dark matter or massive neutrinos has an effect on disturbing the universe's acceleration; we also find that our universe is still accelerating.     

Friedmann Cosmology with Bulk Viscosity： A Concrete Model for Dark Energy

The universe content is considered as a non-perfect fluid with bulk viscosity and can be described by a general equation of state （endowed some deviation from the conventionally assumed cosmic perfect fluid model）. An explicitly bulk viscosity dark energy model is proposed to confront consistently with the current observational data sets by statistical analysis and is shown consistent with （not deviated away much from） the concordant A Cold Dark Matter （CDM） model by comparing the decelerating parameter. Also we compare our relatively simple viscosity dark energy model with a more complicated one by contrast with the concordant ACDM model and find our model improves for the viscosity dark energy model building. Finally we discuss the perspectives of dark energy probes for the coming years with observations.     

Light dark sector searches at low-energy high-luminosity e+e− colliders

Although the standard model (SM) is extremely successful, there are various motivations for considering the physics beyond the SM. For example, the SM includes neither dark energy nor dark matter, which has been confirmed through astrophysical observations. Examination of the dark sector, which contains new, light, weakly-coupled particles at the GeV scale or lower, is well motivated by both theory and dark-matter detection experiments. In this mini-review, we focus on one particular case in which these new particles can interact with SM particles through a kinematic mixing term between U(1) gauge bosons. The magnitude of the mixing can be parameterized by a parameter ϵ. Following a brief overview of the relevant motivations and the constraints determined from numerous experiments, we focus on the light dark sector phenomenology at low-energy high-luminosity e⁺e⁻ colliders. These colliders are ideal for probing the new light particles, because of their large production rates and capacity for precise resonance reconstruction. Depending on the details of a given model, the typical observed signatures may also contain multi lepton pairs, displaced vertices, and/or missing energy. Through the use of extremely large data samples from existing experiments, such as KLOE, CLEO, BABAR, Belle, and BESIII, the ϵ<10⁻⁴–10⁻³ constraint can be obtained. Obviously, future experiments with larger datasets will provide opportunities for the discovery of new particles in the dark sector, or for stricter upper limits on ϵ. Once the light dark sector is confirmed, the particle physics landscape will be changed significantly.     

Performance of a 3 mm×3 mm silicon photomultiplier for use on the X-ray calibration system of the SVOM gamma ray monitor

The calibration detector of a gamma ray monitor (GRM) is designed to detect alpha particles from ²⁴¹Am and to send out the coincidence signal to the GRM X-ray detector. The silicon photomultiplier (SiPM), as a novel photon device, is a good candidate to convert alpha-exciting fluorescent photons into electric signals. Three types of SiPMs from SSPM and MPPC, each having an active area of 3 mm×3 mm, were compared in the matter of the spectra from low-intensity light, dark count, crosstalk probability and I-V curve. The temperature coe cient of SSPM-0710G9MM was also characterized. The application of a SiPM on the GRM has been proved to be feasible.     

Letter: Gravitational Waves in the Generalized Chaplygin Gas Model

The consequences of taking the generalized Chaplygin gas as the dark energy constituent of the Universe on the gravitational waves are studied and the spectrum obtained from this model, for the flat case, is analyzed. Besides its importance for the study of the primordial Universe, the gravitational waves represent an additional perspective (besides the CMB temperature and polarization anisotropies) to evaluate the consistence of the different dark energy models and establish better constraints to their parameters. The analysis presented here takes this fact into consideration to open one more perspective of verification of the generalized Chaplygin gas model applicability. Nine particular cases are compared: one where no dark energy is present; two that simulate the -CDM model; two where the gas acts like the traditional Chaplygin gas; and four where the dark energy is the generalized Chaplygin gas. The different spectra permit to distinguish the -CDM and the Chaplygin gas scenarios.     

电荷耦合器件的γ辐照剂量率效应研究

对电荷耦合器件进行了不同剂量率的γ辐照实验,通过多种参数的测试探讨了剂量率与电荷耦合器件性能退化的关系,并对损伤的物理机理进行分析。辐照和退火结果表明:暗信号和暗信号非均匀性是γ辐照的敏感参数,电荷转移效率和饱和输出电压随剂量累积有缓慢下降的趋势;暗场像素灰度值整体抬升,像元之间的差异显著增加;电荷耦合器件的暗信号增量与剂量率呈负相关性,器件存在潜在的低剂量率损伤增强效应。分析认为,剂量率效应是由界面态和氧化物陷阱电荷竞争导致的。通过电子-空穴对复合模型、质子输运模型和界面态形成对机理进行了解释。     

The semi-constrained NMSSM in light of muon g-2,LHC,and dark matter constraints

The semi-constrained NMSSM(scNMSSM) extends the MSSM by a singlet field, and requires unification of the soft SUSY breaking terms in the squark and slepton sectors, while it allows that in the Higgs sector to be different. We try to interpret the muon g-2 in the sc NMSSM, under the constraints of 125 Ge V Higgs data, B physics,searches for low and high mass resonances, searches for SUSY particles at the LHC, dark matter relic density by WMAP/Planck, and direct searches for dark matter by LUX, XENON1T, and PandaX-II. We find that under the above constraints, the sc NMSSM can still(i) satisfy muon g-2 at 1σ level, with a light muon sneutrino and light chargino;(ii) predict a highly-singlet-dominated 95 GeV Higgs, with a diphoton rate as hinted at by CMS data,because of a light higgsino-like chargino and moderate λ;(iii) get low fine tuning from the GUT scale with smallμeff, M_0, M_(1/2), and A_0, with a lighter stop mass which can be as low as about 500 GeV, which can be further checked in future studies with search results from the 13 TeV LHC;(iv) have the lightest neutralino be singlino-dominated or higgsino-dominated, while the bino and wino are heavier because of high gluino bounds at the LHC and universal gaugino conditions at the GUT scale;(v) satisfy all the above constraints, although it is not easy for the lightest neutralino, as the only dark matter candidate, to get enough relic density. Several ways to increase relic density are discussed.     

Singularities and Entropy in Bulk Viscosity Dark Energy Model

In this paper bulk viscosity is introduced to describe the effects of cosmic non-perfect fluid on the cosmos evolution and to build the unified dark energy (DE) with (dark) matter models. Also we derive a general relation between the bulk viscosity form and Hubble parameter that can provide a procedure for the viscosity DE model building. Especially, a redshift dependent viscosity parameterζ∝λ₀ +λ₁(1+z)ⁿ proposed in the previous work [X.H. Meng and X. Dou, Commun. Theor. Phys. 52 (2009) 377] is investigated extensively in this present work. Further more we use the recently released supernova dataset
(the Constitution dataset) to constrain the model parameters. In order to differentiate the proposed concrete dark energy models from the well known $\Lambda$CDM model, statefinder diagnostic method is applied to this bulk viscosity model, as a complementary to the Om parameter diagnostic and the deceleration parameter analysis performed by us before. The DE model evolution behavior and tendency are shown in the plane of the statefinder diagnostic parameter pair {r,s} as axes where the fixed point represents theΛCDM model. The possible singularity property in this bulk viscosity
cosmology is also discussed to which we can conclude that in the different parameter regions chosen properly, this concrete viscosity DE model can have various late evolution behaviors and the late time singularity could be avoided. We also calculate the cosmic entropy in the bulk viscosity dark energy frame, and find that the total entropy in the viscosity DE model increases monotonously with respect to the scale factor evolution, thus this monotonous
increasing property can indicate an arrow of time in the universe evolution, though the quantum version of the arrow of time is still very puzzling.     

粒子物理和宇宙学中的两片乌云——谈暗物质和暗能量

宇宙暗物质和暗能量是21世纪粒子物理和宇宙学研究中的两个重大的科学问题.文章首先简述了宇宙学研究的历史和现状以及对粒子物理学提出的新的挑战,接着较详细地介绍了暗物质、暗能量和反物质相关的科学问题以及在国际上这个研究领域近年来所取得的进展,最后展望了中国在暗物质和暗能量实验探测研究方面的前景.     

石墨烯被动锁模全正色散掺镱光纤激光器中的暗脉冲及其谐波

报道了一种基于石墨烯被动锁模的全正色散掺镱环形光纤激光器. 在激光器腔中应用激光诱导沉积法制备的石墨烯可饱和吸收体, 通过调节抽运光功率和偏振控制器的角度分别得到了明脉冲及其二阶谐波, 暗明脉冲对和暗脉冲及其二、三阶谐波这三类不同的脉冲. 其中, 暗明脉冲对和暗脉冲在基于石墨烯被动锁模的掺镱光纤激光器实验中都是第一次被观察到. 本文根据实验结果结合模拟分析了暗脉冲的产生机理, 并研究对比了明脉冲谐波和暗脉冲谐波产生的原因.