Direct Dark Matter Searches with the Depleted Argon TPC : Cristiano Galbiati (Princeton)

Direct searches for WIMP Dark Matter are poised for a quantum leap in sensitivity.  The new generation of liquid noble gas detectors promises to increase the sensitivity of direct dark matter searches by many orders of magnitude in the next five years.  Liquified argon promises to deliver the best discrimination between dark matter candidates and natural radioactivity.

I will report on the recent discovery of sources of underground argon depleted in the cosmogenic 39Ar.  This discovery opens a possibility for the construction of large argon-based detectors, capable of exploring a very broad range of WIMP Dark Matter candidates suggested by SUSY theories, with sensitivity to the WIMP-nucleon cross section extending below 10-10 pbarn and sensitivity for the WIMP mass up to many TeV's.  I will report on the Depleted Argon TPC effort to develop the first ever dark matter detector utilizing depleted argon as a target.

Host: Prof. Ed V. Hungerford

634 S&R 1 - 4PM