Scintillation efficiency of nuclear recoil in liquid xenon

Arneodo, F.; Baiboussinov, B.; Badertscher, A.; Benetti, P.; Bernardini, E.; Bettini, A.; Borio Di Tiogliole, A.; Brunetti, R.; Bueno, A.; Calligarich, E.; Campanelli, M.; Carpanese, C.; Cavalli, D.; Cavanna, F.; Cennini, P.; Centro, S.; Cesana, A.; Cline, D.; De Mitri, I.; Dolfini, R.; Ferrari, A.; Gigli Berzolari, A.; Matthey, C.; Mauri, F.; Mazza, D.; Mazzone, L.; Meng, G.; Montanari, C.; Nurzia, G.; Otwinowski, S.; Palamara, O.; Pascoli, D.; Pepato, A.; Petrera, S.; Periale, L.; Piano Mortari, G.; Piazzoli, A.; Picchi, P.; Pietropaolo, F.; Rancati, T.; Rappoldi, A.; Raselli, G. L.; Rebuzzi, D.; Revo, J. P.; Rico, J.; Rossella, M.; Rossi, C.; Rubbia, A.; Rubbia, C.; Sala, P.; Scannicchio, D.; Sergiampietri, F.; Suzuki, S.; Terrani, M.; Tian, W.; Ventura, S.; Vignoli, C.; Wang, H.; Woo, J.; Xu, Z.

doi:10.1016/S0168-9002(99)01300-5

We present the results of a test done with a Liquid Xenon (LXe) detector for "Dark Matter" search, exposed to a neutron beam to produce nuclear recoil events simulating those which would be generated by WIMP's elastic scattering. The aim of the experiment was to measure directly the scintillation efficiency of nuclear recoil. The nuclear recoil considered in the test was in the tens of keV range. The ratio of measured visible energy over the true recoil energy was evaluated to be about 20%, in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.