Conveners
Experiments: Dark Matter Detectors: Tuesday Early
- Federica Petricca (Max-Planck-Institut für Physik)
- Silvia Scorza (SNOLAB)
Experiments: Dark Matter Detectors: Tuesday Middle
- Federica Petricca (Max-Planck-Institut für Physik)
- Silvia Scorza (SNOLAB)
Description
Zoom Room: TIPP2021 Parallel Room 3
(see e-mail sent to registered participants for connection details)
The PandaX-4T is a dark matter direct detection experiment with a dual-phase xenon detector. It is located at Jinping underground laboratory in Sichuan, China. In the 2.8-tonne fiducial mass and energy region of interest (1-10 keV), the total electron recoil and nuclear recoil backgrounds are supposed to be (4.9±0.5)×10^(-2) mDRU and (2.8±0.5)×10^(-4) mDRU. With an exposure of 5.6 ton-years,...
Despite the multiple and convincing evidence of the existence of Dark Matter (DM) in our Universe, its detection is still one of the most pressing questions in particle physics. For this reason, in recent years a large fraction of the direct detection scientific community started to explore the possibility of detecting DM with mass in the sub-GeV range. Cryogenic diamond detectors have the...
A major worldwide effort is underway to procure the radiopure argon needed for DarkSide-20k (DS-20k), the first large scale detector of the new Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration. The Urania project will extract and purify underground argon (UAr) from CO2 wells in the USA at a production rate of ~300 kg/day. Additional chemical purification of the UAr will be required prior to its use in...
Next-generation experiments for dark matter detection such as liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chambers (TPC) have the main goal of probing the experimentally accessible parameter space for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) as a dark matter candidate. The realization of such large detectors requires the demonstration of a series of technologies. We, therefore, aimed to built a...
NEWS-G is an experiment searching for dark matter using the Spherical Proportional Counter (SPC) technique. Such detectors can operate significant mass of target while keeping single ionization electron detection sensitivity. They can use light target gases such as hydrogen, helium, and neon. NEWS-G aspires to extend the sensitivity of direct dark matter searches to the mass range from 0.1 GeV...
We will discuss recent progress in making sub-keV nuclear recoil calibrations practical in a university lab environment. First, we will describe a 124SbBe (gamma,n) neutron source in which a novel Fe shielding method suppresses the outgoing gamma flux while allowing the unmoderated escape of the 24keV neutrons. Second, we will describe a method to moderate and then filter neutrons from a...
DarkSide-20k direct dark matter search experiment aims at cumulative exposure of 200 ton-year with zero instrumental backgrounds by utilizing several novel approaches such as extraction of argon from underground sources, purification of argon via destination column, readout via large array of silicon-based photosensors and two nested liquid argon-based detectors housed within a ProtoDUNE-style...
For dual-phase xenon time projection chambers such as LUX, signatures of low-mass DM interactions would be $\sim$keV scatters that ionize only a few xenon atoms and seldom produce detectable scintillation signals. In this regime, extra precaution is required to reject a complex set of low-energy backgrounds that have long been observed in this class of detector. Noticing backgrounds from the...
Nuclear recoil (NR) calibrations are vital for understanding detector responses to dark matter candidates and neutrino-nucleus signals in direct detection experiments. Low-mass (<5 GeV) dark matter candidates and $^8$B neutrinos drive the need for high-statistics/low-systematic calibrations at sub-keV NR energies.
We report the results of NR calibrations in the LUX dark matter detector using...
Radon and its daughter decays continue to limit the sensitivity of WIMP direct dark matter searches, despite extensive screening programs, careful material selection and specialized Rn-reduction systems. This problem is only expected to worsen as experiments grow in size. For liquid xenon TPCs, we propose to address this through crystallizing the xenon. Once solid, the xenon will no longer...
