Speaker
Ben Loer
(Fermilab)
Description
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment employs ultra-cold germanium and silicon crystals to search for interactions with Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, and has recently published an analysis of data from silicon detectors that found three events that could be interpreted as arising from a low-mass WIMP. I will present an overview of semiconductor WIMP searches, with emphasis on the CDMS detector technology and analysis approach and provide details on the recent silicon analysis. I will also describe the updated SuperCDMS detectors, with greatly increased background rejection capabilities, and outline the upcoming SNOLAB phase of the experiment. I will conclude with a discussion of the predicted sensitivity of SuperCDMS and some other upcoming experiments to probe both the low-mass silicon region of interest and more conventional WIMP masses.
Primary author
Ben Loer
(Fermilab)
