2011/02/04 by D. R. Nygren, David Nygren, Nygren, David · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Particle Detector Development and Performance #astro-ph.HE #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1102.0815
Nine pages, two figures
arxiv created 2011/02/04 · openalex publication_date 2011/02/04 · arxiv updated 2011/02/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The annual modulation signal observed by the DAMA-LIBRA Collaboration (D-L) may plausibly be explained as a consequence of energy deposited in the NaI(Tl) crystals by cosmic ray muons penetrating the detector. Delayed pulses in the approximate energy range of interest have been observed as a sequel to energy deposited by UV irradiation. The same behavior may be reasonably expected to occur for energy deposited by any source of ionization or excitation. D-L can test this hypothesis by searching for time correlations between muon events and pulses in modulation energy range in current data, and by renewed operation of the array at a sufficiently low temperature that would freeze out the phenomenon.