Amsler Regenfus
Fakultäten » Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät » Physik-Institut » Teilchenphysik » Prof. Dr. Claude Amsler (emeritiert) » Amsler Regenfus
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Design study of a next-generation noble liquid dark matter facility in Europe (DARWIN) | ||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | Identifying the nature of dark matter in the universe is one of the most pressing issues in Particle Physics. The most popular candidates are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). These particles could be detected directly by their collisions with nuclei in large underground detectors. Noble liquid detectors such as liquid argon (LAr) and liquid xenon (LXe) are among the most promising technologies to identify WIMPs. According to the ASPERA roadmap, coordination among the groups in Europe is required to build large infrastructures for particle astrophysics, in particular for the detection of WIMPs. The Darwin project, approved by ASPERA, coordinates the European groups active in this field. The goal is to perform design studies for a multi-ton scale LAr and LXe dark matter search facility. Our group has developed the light readout system for a one ton LAr experiment (ArDM). We are measuring the luminescence response of liquid argon for electrons, alphas and neutrons. This activity is directly applicable to the DARWIN project. In particular, the neutron background (e.g. from cosmic ray spallation) is worrisome since neutron-argon interaction can simulate WIMP-argon events. We have therefore built a facility in our laboratory at CERN around our deuteron-deuteron fusion source (producing 2.5 MeV neutrons) to study the light response in LAr as a function of nuclear recoil energy. Weitere Informationen |
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| Publications / Publikationen | First results on the light readout from the 1-ton ArDM liquid argon detector for dark matter searches, C. Amsler et al. (ArDM Collaboration, 41 authors)!, Journal of Instrumentation 5 (2010) P11003.Search for WIMPs in liquid argon C. Amsler, http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.4524 (to appear) |
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| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | Dark matter, WIMP, xenon, argon, ArDM, XENON-100 | ||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Other links to external web pages | http://cern.ch/unizh | ||||||
| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
SNF (Personen- und Projektförderung), EU |
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| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Apr 2010 to Mar 2013 |