XENON100 is a liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber built to search for rare collisions of hypothetical, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Operated in a low-background shield at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy, XENON100 has reached the unprecedented background level of $<$0.15 events/day/\kevr in the energy range below 100 \kevr in 30 kg of target mass, before electronic/nuclear recoil discrimination. It found no evidence for WIMPs during a dark matter run lasting for 100.9 live days in 2010, excluding with 90% confidence scalar WIMP-nucleon cross sections above 7x10$^{-45}$ cm$^{2}$ at a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c$^{2}$. A new run started in March 2011, and more than 200 live days of WIMP-search data have been acquired. Results of this second run are expected to be released in summer 2012.
Evaluation of the neutron background in cryogenic Germanium target for WIMP direct detection when using a reactor neutrino detector as a neutron veto system
Reconstructing Dark Matter Mass and Discriminating Standard and Non-Standard WIMP-Nucleus Interactions with Paleo-Detectors
The University of Texas at Austin(德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校);Stockholm University(斯德哥尔摩大学);KTH Royal Institute of Technology(皇家理工学院);University of North Florida(北佛罗里达大学);Jožef Stefan Institute(约瑟夫斯蒂芬研究所)
New Dark Matter Detectors using DNA or RNA for Nanometer Tracking
弱相互作用大质量粒子(WIMP)可能构成宇宙中的大部分物质。探测反冲核方向性的能力将大大促进对WIMP的探测。在本文中,我们提出了一种新型的暗物质探测器:由DNA或RNA制成的探测器可以提供纳米分辨率的跟踪,能量阈值为0.5 keV,并可以在室温下工作。当一个来自星系晕的弱相互作用粒子从探测器中的一个原子核上弹性散射时,反冲的原子核就会穿过数百串具有已知碱基序列的单链核酸(ssNA),并沿着它的轨迹切断ssNA链。断裂的位置可以通过使用生物学家熟知的技术扩增和鉴定切割的ssNA的片段来鉴定。因此,反冲核的路径可以被跟踪到纳米精度。在一个这样的探测器概念中,传感器是1 m x 1 m的纳米厚Au箔,并且反冲核的方向通过由ssNA链的有序阵列组成的“NA跟踪室”来测量。聚合酶链式反应(PCR)和ssNA测序用于读出检测器。拟议的探测器比其他替代品更小,更便宜:1公斤的黄金和0.1至4公斤的ssNA(取决于长度和链密度),包装成0.01米$^3$,可以用来研究10 GeV的WIMP。该探测器中可以使用各种其他探测器目标元件,以针对不同的WIMP质量进行优化并识别WIMP属性。通过利用分子生物学的进步,我们的目标是以合理的成本实现比传统WIMP探测器高约1,000倍的空间分辨率。
Low-Mass WIMP Sensitivity and Statistical Discrimination of Electron and Nuclear Recoils by Varying Luke-Neganov Phonon Gain in Semiconductor Detectors
在半导体暗物质探测器中放大声子信号可以通过在高电压偏置下操作并将静电势能转换成Luke-Neganov声子来实现。这种放大方法已经在高达|E| = 40 V/cm的电压下得到验证,在CDMS II Ge探测器中不会产生泄漏,允许对质量= 8 GeV和截面为1.8 e-42 cm ^2的基准WIMP的灵敏度,假设在阈值附近的电子反冲背景是平坦的。此外,我们第一次表明,核和电子反冲的Luke-Neganov增益的差异可以用来区分低能量背景和假设的WIMP信号之间的统计操作在两个不同的电压偏置。具体来说,对于一个模拟的20千克-天的实验,99%的事件的p值<1 e-8,其中基准WIMP信号的质量= 8 GeV,截面= 3.3 e-41 cm ^2。
低温暗物质搜索实验(CDMS)采用低温Ge和Si探测器通过目标核的弹性散射来探测WIMP。最后一次分析中,锗暴露量为397.8千克-天,没有观测到任何候选事件,因此,当WIMP质量为60 GeV时,与自旋无关的WIMP-核子截面的上限为6.6 x 10 ^{-44} cm ^2(如果包括之前的CDMS Soudan数据,则为4.6 x 10^{-44} cm ^2)。将讨论当前分析的表面事件抑制能力的改进,其中锗暴露比上次分析中使用的暴露大2.5倍。为了将灵敏度提高到超过1 x 10^{-44} cm ^2的基准,研制了新的1英寸厚的探测器。由六个这种探测器组成的第一个塔已成功地安装在苏丹场址。这些探测器将用于15 kg的SuperCDMS级,预期对自旋无关的WIMP-核子弹性散射截面的灵敏度为5 x 10^{-45} cm ^2。此外,CDMS协作组已经开始寻找非WIMP暗物质粒子的特征,这可能解释DAMA观测到的年度调制特征。
DARWIN: dark matter WIMP search with noble liquids
DARWIN(用惰性液体进行暗物质弱相互作用探测)是欧洲下一代多吨级暗物质探测器的设计研究。液态氩和/或液态氙是直接探测大质量弱相互作用粒子(WIMP)形式的暗物质候选者的目标介质。通过时间投影室技术观察由活性检测器体积中的粒子相互作用产生的光和电荷信号。DARWIN将探测1 e-48 cm 2以下与自旋无关的WIMP-核子截面,并测量具有高统计数据的WIMP诱导核反冲谱,如果它们被现有或不久的将来的实验发现的话。在一个简短的介绍之后,我将描述项目,选择的研发主题,预期的背景和物理范围。
DEAP-3600 is a single-phase liquid argon (LAr) dark matter detector, located 2 km underground at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Canada, which started taking data in 2016. The detector is sensitive to nuclear recoils induced by scattering of dark matter particles, which would cause emission of prompt scintillation light. DEAP-3600 demonstrated excellent performance, holds the leading WIMP exclusion among LAr detectors, and published several physics results. The WIMP sensitivity of the detector is currently limited by backgrounds induced by alpha activity at the LAr inlet, in a shadowed region of detector. …
Dark Matter (DM) is one of the most critical questions to be understood and answered in fundamental physics today. Observations with varied astronomical and cosmological technologies already pinned down that DM exists in the Universe, the Milky Way, and the Solar System. However, the understanding of DM under the language of elementary physics is still in progress. DM direct detection aims to test the interactive cross-section between galactic DM particles and an underground detector's nucleons. Although Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs) is the most discussed DM candidate, the null-…
DEAP-3600实验使用3.6吨液态氩进行灵敏的暗物质搜索,在100 GeV的WIMP质量下,对自旋无关的WIMP-核子截面的灵敏度为$10^{-46}$ cm $^2$。这种高灵敏度是可以实现的,这是由于大的目标质量和非常低的背景,在球形丙烯酸检测器的设计,以及在独特的SNOLAB设施在萨德伯里,加拿大。利用脉冲形状鉴别技术从WIMP产生的核反冲信号中剔除电磁背景。我们在2015年初开始在探测器内部使用真空和后来的气体进行调试。氩气填充预计在2015年冬季进行。本文介绍了DEAP-3600实验的概况和现状,重点是探测器背景的控制和缓解。