Speaker
Description
The DarkSide-20k experiment is the latest generation dual-phase Liquid Argon-TPC hunting for Dark Matter. In particular, its goal is to discover or to extend the current sensitivity limits on the search for WIMP-like particles. This detector brings together the successful concept of the DarkSide-50 detector, and the experience gained on large volume membrane cryostats developed within the DUNE program. It features large-area, SiPM-based optical planes for light readout, and it exploits a unique target, i.e. argon extracted deep underground (underground argon, UAr) and depleted from its beta-decaying isotope 39Ar, therefore extremely radio-quiet.
Currently, the detector design is being finalized, with construction of the TPC components starting next year. In the meantime, the main cryostat that will contain the detector has been constructed in Hall C of the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), Italy. At the same time, characterization and production of the SiPM-based photo sensors started in LNGS facility NOA, with the goal of starting assembling the readout planes in late 2025.
This contribution will describe the DarkSide-20k detector, and then it will report on the ongoing activities. At LNGS underground: construction of the cryostat and the atmospheric argon (AAr) cryogenic plant were completed. AAr will provide the thermal bath in which the main detector, filled with UAr, will be operated. At LNGS on the surface: preproduction and characterization of the photon detector units (PDUs), which will then be long-term tested in Napoli and analysed for failures in Pisa. Several other PDU test sites were put into operation across the collaboration, and their activities will be presented.
| Primary experiment | DarkSide 20k |
|---|
