Speaker
Prof.
Daniel McKinsey
(Yale University)
Description
The XENON10 experiment is a search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles
(WIMPs), a leading candidate for the dark matter content of the Universe. The
XENON10 detector uses the simultaneous measurement of ionization and scintillation
in liquid xenon to distinguish between nuclear recoils and background electronic
interactions. Ionization electrons are extracted into the xenon vapor where they
produce a large proportional scintillation signal in a grid assembly. Both
prompt and proportional scintillation light are detected by PMT arrays on the
top and bottom of the active liquid xenon volume. The distribution of
proportional scintillation light in the top PMT array can be used to achieve xy
position resolution, while the ionization drift time gives position resolution
in the z direction. This allows the definition of a low-background fiducial
volume. XENON10 was installed in the underground Gran Sasso National Laboratory in
Italy in March 2006, and a blind analysis was performed on low-background data acquired between November
2006 and February 2007. I will present the results of that analysis, which has the allowed the most sensitive
limit to date on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-section. I will also describe the current plans
for XENON10, as well as future dark matter experiments using the same technology.
Author
Prof.
Daniel McKinsey
(Yale University)
