First Search for Gravitational Wave Coincident Neutrinos in a Liquid Argon Detector with DEAP-3600

Modern liquid argon (LAr) scintillation detectors are capable of detecting many types of rare particle interactions with extremely low cross sections. One such detector, DEAP-3600, was originally designed to observe weak interactions between nuclei and dark matter; its low backgrounds and argon target make it suitable for observing neutrino absorption interactions from astrophysical sources as well. Binary mergers including at least one neutron star are theorized to produce a neutrino signal, and their simultaneous emission of gravitational waves allows for precise timing cuts to be used to reduce backgrounds and reserve data sidebands for comparison. During its second fill from 2017-2020, DEAP-3600 recorded data in conjunction with seven such merger events observed gravitationally by LIGO. Upon examination, there is no statistically significant evidence of neutrinos from any of the seven mergers examined. This allows for exclusion limits to be set on the electron neutrino fluence that reached the detector at 3.35×10^14 cm^−2 (7.24×10^11 cm^−2) for 10 MeV(100 MeV) electron neutrinos. Future LAr detectors such as DarkSide-20k, also built to detect dark matter, employ additional technology to make more sensitive observations. These detectors will introduce an opportunity for a more powerful search for neutron star merger neutrinos by way of the dual-phase concept. A smaller prototype detector, DarkSide-20k Mockup, has successfully tested the construction and operation methods for a full-scale detector with a dual-phase design.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Physics

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Huff, Daniel Thomas Plog

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Renshaw, Andrew

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Bellwied, Rene
• Cherdack, Daniel
• Mang, Andreas
• Vovchenko, Volodymyr

• Particle physics
• Gravitational waves
• Neutrinos
• Multimessenger astronomy
• Liquid argon detector

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/21492

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/21492