Speaker
Description
DarkSide-20k is a dual-phase argon detector for dark matter searches, which has the capability to push the sensitivity for WIMP detection several orders of magnitude beyond current levels. It will have ultra-low backgrounds and sensitivity to WIMP-nucleon cross section down to 1.2 x 10^{47} cm^2 for WIMPs of 1 TeV/c^2 mass with a LAr exposure of 100 t yr. The DarkSide-20k detector is currently under construction at LNGS, and it mainly consists of a sealed acrylic Time Projection Chamber (TPC), an active neutron veto constructed by gadolinium-doped acrylic panels and a membrane cryostat. The R&D of the TPC is currently in progress at CERN; two prototype detectors are being built to demonstrate the key techniques which are going to be used in DarkSide-20k. The R&D of the veto detector is also underway, by cooperating with Donchamp Inc., a company specialized in radio-pure acrylic production.
In this talk, we will give an overview of the DarkSide-20k detector and discuss all the related R&D work.
