Sean Paling Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC ...kicp-workshops.uchicago.edu › IDM2012 › depot › talk-paling-sean.pdfSean Paling STFC / Boulby IDM2012 Chicago, July

Sean Paling STFC / Boulby IDM2012 Chicago, July 2012 1

Sean Paling Science & Technology Facilities Council

(STFC) & Boulby Mine


This Talk.....

Boulby Underground Science Facility: Status & Future Plans

• Boulby Mine and the Deep Underground Science facility

• DRIFT Directional Dark Matter Detector Programme

• Other deep underground science studies... • SKY: Cosmic rays, aerosols & climate • Ultra-low background gamma spectroscopy • Muon tomography for deep geological surveying • Geomicrobiology / Astrobiology studies • Misc Geology / Geoscience • Etc.

Facility expansion

plans


Boulby Mine A working potash and rock-salt

mine on the North East of England. Operated by Cleveland Potash Ltd. Major local employer - ~1000

direct and 4000 indirect employment.

Plymouth

London

Birmingham

Liverpool

Newcastle

Edinburgh

Inverness

Belfast

Dublin

Redcar

Hartlepool

Peterlee

Middlesbrough

Billingham

Newton Aycliffe

Stockton

Darlington

Middlesborough!

Whitby!

Staithes!

York!

Potash View from Staithes

Deepest mine in Britain – 1100m deep (2805+/-45 mwe) – Cosmic ray muon flux reduced by ~106


Over 40 kms of tunnel mined each year (now >1,000kms in total)

Long lived roadways cut in salt (NaCl) – giving access to potash (KCl) levels just above

Boulby salt is very low in natural radioactive backgrounds (U/Th,Rn)

Geology

Heliminer

Plan of excavations

Mine Shafts

Palmer Lab

Boulby Mine

Typical roadway


ZEPLIN-III

DRIFT-II

SKY

‘JIF’ Science Facilities (opened 2003). • ‘Palmer Lab’: a 100+m, fully equipped underground lab. Power, internet and telephone communications, lifting, air conditioning / filtration, clean room. • ‘John Barton’ surface facility: Workshop, facility monitoring, office and administration, PPE, storage, chemistry lab, changing rooms.

Boulby Science Facilities

A QUIET place in the Universe


Low background gamma spectrometery Facility and detector assembly room

Access to interesting deep underground geology

Liquid Nitrogen Generation and small projects room

Main hall: SKY ZERO study if ionisation induced aerosol nucleation & growth

DRIFT-II – Directional Dark Matter detection programme

Views from in & around the Palmer Lab...


What Makes Boulby Special? Requirements for an underground laboratory...

Low Backgrounds • Deep (to shield from cosmic rays) • Low background rock/lab (and/or adequate shielding)

Plenty of Laboratory space

Easy access for equipment

Proximity of services / civilisation

Good infrastructure + support

1.1 km deep (2,805 +/-45 mwe) CR muons attenuated by ~106

(4.09±0.15)!10-8 cm-2s-1

Salt = low in U/Th (67±6/125±10ppb) " Low gamma & neutron backgrounds " Low Radon (<3Bq/m3)

>1000 m2 existing lab space & excellent potential for expansion.

Via mine shaft (5m diam. – 2!2!2m cage) + Transport underground

20 min " Whitby, Saltburn 1 hr " York, Leeds, Middleborough < 5 hrs " London, Manchester etc.

• JIF Underground & surface facilities • Wide-ranging support from mine operators (Cleveland Potash Ltd)

A unique science / industry partnership


Science @ Boulby

8

Active contributor in both ILIAS and ASPERA EU lab programmes

SKY-ZERO – Ongoing Danish/UK. Cosmic Rays & climatology study

Also...

High sensitivity Gamma Spectroscopy studies – material selection

Misc. Geology & Geoscience Studies

Future Science... • DRIFT Directional Dark Matter Search • Misc low background science study support (DM-Ice, SuperNEMO etc).

• SKY-II: Cosmic rays / climate study. • Gamma spectroscopy for material screening & environment studies • Muon Tomography for geological structure monitoring... • Geomicrobiology / Astrobiology • Misc. Geology / Geoscience Studies.


Status: Operating @ Boulby since 2001. New 3 year (2011-2014) NSF funding for expanded ops & R&D....

Directional DM detection – providing the most powerful direct detection signature

A DIRECTIONAL Dark Matter Detector.

DR

IFT-IId @ B

oulby

Our movement within the Dark Matter Halo

Directional detection

Sheffield, Edinburgh, Occidental College, New Mexico, Colorado State, Boulby

Dark matter Halo

Rotation of visible matter WITHIN the Dark Matter halo

Vsun~230kms-1

Tvis~240Myrs

WIMP Wind

DRIFT @ Boulby...

Real data Simulated data

WIMP flux


CS2 = Electronegative. Molecules drifted instead of electrons keeping diffusion to <0.7mm over 50cm

"X & "Y from anode & grid wire hits. "Z from timing & pulse shape.

The DRIFT Technique

See talks here by D.Loomba & D.Snowden-Ifft for details & latest results

~32kV

Low pressure (40Torr) CS2/CF4 gas target used to extend WIMP tracks to few mm.

A Negative Ion Drift Time Projection Chamber (NI-TPC) with 40 Torr CS2/CF4 fill gas.

60ms-1

Electric Field Lines

Grid ~3kV

Grid Wires

Anode wires

Gas Gain ~500

2mm

1cm

MWPC Readout

2mm 1cm (cathode to anode)

2mm

(+/- 2.8kV)

(0kV)

Drift direction


Left drift Volume Right drift

Volume

0.8m3 fiducial volume 40 Torr (30/10) CS2/CF4 fill gas (33g F)

MWPC and vetos

(1.5m)3 vacuum vessel

Fe55 source

Central Cathode (~32kV)

Preamps & grouping

1m2 MWPCs 512 20µm anodes 2 x 512 100µm grids

DRIFT-II @ Boulby

Now 0.9µm aluminized Mylar film

Right MWPC

Left MWPC


Goal: Explore/develop DRIFT as a viable detector for directional detection (SI & SD).

Sensitivity: • Unblind SD limit from 47.4 days of DRIFT-II livetime - not far behind non-direction detectors. • But for WIMP detection – orders of magnitude improvement needed – gaseous detectors will need to be LARGE...

R&D Issues • Detector/infrastructure scale-up issues • Cost reduction (DRIFT-II ~$100k) • Stability, robustness and longevity • Develop / optimise readout and operating pressures. • Demonstrate / reduce energy thresholds • Demonstrate / improve directionality & head/tail sensitivity • Reduce backgrounds – Radon Progeny Recoils (RPRs)

Currently (<50 keV)

See talks by D.Loomba & D.Snowden-Ifft for details & latest results

Directionality & Head/Tail down

to <50 keV

DRIFT Current Work...

Astropart. Phys. 35 (2011) 397.

SD Limit DRIFT-IId

(See papers)


Status... • Already funded to build & test 1m3 DRIFT-IIe to test DRIFT-III technology (MPWCs, film cathode etc) • DOE/NSF bids submitted for 1-3 year programme of DRIFT-III module construction & operation

Towards DRIFT-III

Thin foil cathode Interleaved (anode / cathode) readout.

DRIFT-III: A next-generation Directional Dark Matter detector @ Boulby SD limits

2.4 m3.yr 10.4 m3.yr

30.4 m3.yr

• Multiple DRIFT volume segments per vessel • Single plane MWPCs – viewing both sides • Larger 2!2m readout planes, 50cm drift distance • Better low cost & noise electronics – each wire. • Thin (0.9µm) film textured cathode. E.g. 6 segments = 24m3 fiducial. vol, 4kg CS2/CF4 ! 30 x increase in sensitivity vs. DRIFT-II

DRIFTIIe work at Oxy


Boulby Facility Expansion... Excavations for a new >1000m2 lab housing DRIFT-III and beyond...

Excavations offered at zero cost by mine operators

DRIFT-III Bay

Drawings by Dave Warner Colorado State University


Other Deep Underground Science @ Boulby

2011: 3 year STFC funding granted to develop multi- disciplinary science studies @ Boulby


The SKY Project An Danish/UK study of the effect of ions on aerosol nucleation in the atmosphere - the 1st study in an ultra-low background environment.

‘Cosmo-climatology’: Ionisation from cosmic rays may have an influence on cloud

production and mean cloud clover

SKY @ Boulby

How are aerosols formed?!Radioactive source to simulate cosmic rays Aerosols forming and

growing

Do Cosmic Rays play a role in aerosol formation & climate?

Participants: Boulby, Manchester, Oxford, Birmingham, Danish National Space Institute.

SKY-ZERO: Primary science runs @ Boulby completed 2008-2010. Next-generation detector ‘SKY-II’ now in preparation... Expected operation at Boulby 2013-2014


The SKY Project Results so far... SKY-ZERO results shows that ionisation IS important.... • Aerosol nucleation rate increases significantly with ionisation present. • There is also a ‘neutral’ nucleation mechanism at work. • Background ionisations levels reduced to <2 ions.cm-3

Next steps: A bigger & better SKY experiment (SKY-II) under contruction for operation at Boulby 2013-2014. • Better trace gas & aerosol monitoring, ion measurement to <1 ion/cm3, larger chamber (785l) with temp. stabilisaton • Chamber funding already secured (Danish Space Institute). Construction underway. • UK working group established: STFC-RAL, Manchester, Birmingham, Oxford Universities.

SKY-II

Results: Aerosol nucleation vs. Ion production!

Journal of Aerosol Science (2012), pp. 75-85!


Why Muon tomography? Why Boulby? - Potential for cheap, reliable, practical, real-time long-term monitoring of deep structures - - Boulby site & skills uniquely well suited for development & testing: appropriate depths, ease of access, infrastructure & experstise, known geology

Development of a powerful new techniques for deep 3D geological surveying - using cosmic ray muon particles...

Applications? - Deep geological repository monitoring. - Overburden survey in mining?...

STFC-Boulby, Durham,

Sheffield, Bath, Fermilab

Muon detector array

Already proven for shallower uses:

- Volacanos & pyramids interiors

Image from Mt Asama volcano study: Earth & planetary Science Letters. 263 (2007) 104-113

Technique already proven

for volcano interiors

Muon Tomography: potentially of significant value for many deep geological mapping applications

Cosmic ray muons

Muon Tomography @ Boulby


Muon Detector Deployment @ Boulby • Existing sites of seismic survey instrumentation • 110V power supply • Safe, protected space • Cross coast boundary (~200m cliff drop, 50-200m depth sea)

Approx line of Coast 1km

Muon Tides Site:

Muon Tomography Development & Testing @ Boulby


Muon Tides Project

Muon tides detector

Surface tests: Detector development in laboratory

Start-up study: a simple muon detector aiming to detect change in overburden due to the eb & flow of the tides.

Deployment site visit

Sam Telfer. Sheffied

Muon tides site: ~750m, below sea.


Geomicrobiology / Astrobiology Towards an International Subsurface Astrobiology Facility (ISAL) – linked to the Palmer Laboratory at Boulby...

Edinburgh, Boulby, NASA,

CPL (etc)

A base for studies of life in Boulby rock – with relevance to limits of life on earth and life on other planets

From Dark Matter to Dark Life!? Over 90% of life on Earth is in the deep sub-surface...

An important ‘Mars Analogue site’ – with geology & conditions to allow explorations & astrobiology technique & instrumentation development


Geomicrobiology / Astrobiology

Palmer Lab site chosen for Boulby astrobiology lab (ISAL)

Boulby facility provides: - Clean, contamination-free labspace - Supervised access to interesting geology - Technology and physics expertise

What Next? - Outfit chosen Palmer lab ISAL site - Seek start-up funding for facility and pilot studies (2012/2013) - Expand and develop activites...


Summary....

• The DRIFT directional dark matter detector programme continues at Boulby

• DRIFT-II operation and R&D underway. Looking now to scale up, initially with detector redisign: DRIFTIIe & DRIFT-III

• Science at Boulby is diversifying. Now 1 year in to 3 year programme to develop new multi-disciplainary projects

o SKY: Cosmic rays, Aerosols & Climate o Ultra-lowbackground gamma spectroscopy o Muon tomography for deep geological survey o Astrobiology / Geomicrobiology o etc

• Facility expansion planned. Excavation of >1000m2 space offered by mine operators to support science

Want to do science @ Boulby? Contact us: [email protected]

Documents

Sean Paling Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC ...kicp-workshops.uchicago.edu › IDM2012 › depot › talk-paling-sean.pdfSean Paling STFC / Boulby IDM2012 Chicago, July