Simulation of special bubble detectors for PICASSO

• Published in: Radiation protection dosimetry 2006-09, Vol.120 (1-4), p.499-502
• Main Authors: Azuelos, G., Barnabé-Heider, M., Behnke, E., Clark, K., Di Marco, M., Doane, P., Feighery, W., Genest, M.-H., Gornea, R., Guénette, R., Kanagalingam, S., Krauss, C., Leroy, C., Lessard, L., Levine, I., Martin, J. P., Noble, A. J., Noulty, R., Shore, S. N., Wichoski, U., Zacek, V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer Simulation; Computer-Aided Design; Cosmic Radiation; Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Extraterrestrial Environment; Linear Energy Transfer; Materials Testing; Microbubbles; Models, Chemical; Radiation Dosage; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Surface Properties; Thermoluminescent Dosimetry - instrumentation; Thermoluminescent Dosimetry - methods
• ISSN: 0144-8420; 1742-3406
• DOI: 10.1093/rpd/nci666

The PICASSO project is a cold dark matter (CDM) search experiment relying on the superheated droplet technique. The detectors use superheated freon liquid droplets (active material) dispersed and trapped in a polymerised gel. This detection technique is based on the phase transition of superheated droplets at about room temperature and ambient pressure. The phase transition is induced by nuclear recoils when an atomic nucleus in the droplets interacts with incoming subatomic particles. This includes CDM particles candidate as the neutralino (a yet-to-discover particle predicted in extensions of the standard model of particle physics). Simulations performed to understand the detector response to neutrons and alpha particles are presented along with corresponding data obtained at the Montreal Laboratory.