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Abstract
Inorganic crystal scintillators play a crucial role in particle detection for various applications in fundamental physics and applied science. The use of such materials as scintillating bolometers, which operate at temperatures as low as 10 mK and detect both heat (phonon) and scintillation signals, significantly extends detectors performance compared to the conventional scintillation counters. In particular, such low-temperature devices offer a high energy resolution in a wide energy interval thanks to a phonon signal detection, while a simultaneous registration of scintillation emitted provides an efficient particle identification tool. This feature is of great importance for a background identification and rejection. Combined with a large variety of elements of interest, which can be embedded in crystal scintillators, scintillating bolometers represent powerful particle detectors for rare-event searches (e.g., rare alpha and beta decays, double-beta decay, dark matter particles, neutrino detection). Here, we review the features and results of low-temperature scintillation detection achieved over a 30-year history of developments of scintillating bolometers and their use in rare-event search experiments.
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Abstract
In the direct detection of the galactic dark matter, experiments using cryogenic solid-state detectors or noble liquids play for years a very relevant role, with increasing target mass and more and more complex detection systems. But smaller projects, based on very sensitive, advanced detectors following new technologies, could help in the exploration of the different proposed dark matter scenarios too. There are experiments focused on the observation of distinctive signatures of dark matter, like an annual modulation of the interaction rates or the directionality of the signal; other ones are intended to specifically investigate low mass dark matter candidates or particular interactions. For this kind of dark matter experiments at small scale, the physics case will be discussed and selected projects will be described, summarizing the basics of their detection methods and presenting their present status, recent results and prospects.
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