Ako Jamil

Ako Jamil's picture
Associate Research Scholar (Dicke Fellow)
Princeton University
Research Areas: 
Particle Physics
Research Type: 
Experimentalist
Education: 
Ph.D. 2022, Yale University
Honors & Awards: 
2020 GIRA Honorable Mention
Advisor: 
David C. Moore
Dissertation Title: 
Rare Event Searches in Liquid Xenon with EXO-200 and nEXO
Dissertation Abstract: 
Liquid Xenon (LXe) detectors, operated as Time Projection Chambers (TPC), have emerged as a key technology in the past decades in the search for extremely rare events, such as the interaction of dark matter or neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) of Xe-136. These experiments need to operate in an ultra-low background regime. The remaining backgrounds need to be not only reliably and accurately modeled but can also be rejected using sophisticated reconstruction techniques that will distinguish signal from background. In this work, three generations of liquid xenon experiments are examined.
 
Data from the EXO-200 experiment was analyzed for a novel interaction mechanism of dark matter with ordinary matter via a charged-current absorption of fermionic dark matter.
 
A detailed understanding of the light and charge transport in liquid xenon for the upcoming tonne-scale nEXO experiment is described, including a robust estimate of the discovery and exclusion sensitivity for 0νββ in Xe-136.
 
Lastly, a conceptual design for a possible kilotonne-scale LXe detector is presented, which includes requirements on the photon detection system to enable novel Cherenkov and scintillation light separation for improved discrimination between β-like and ββ-like events.