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Book Low Background Science with the Next Generation SuperCDMS HV eV  Dark Matter Detector

Download or read book Low Background Science with the Next Generation SuperCDMS HV eV Dark Matter Detector written by Corey Bathurst and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: limiting setting and provided a clear idea of what can be improved for dark matter-electron searches moving forward.

Book Projected Sensitivity of the SuperCDMS SNOLAB Experiment

Download or read book Projected Sensitivity of the SuperCDMS SNOLAB Experiment written by and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SuperCDMS SNOLAB will be a next-generation experiment aimed at directly detecting low-mass (10 GeV/c$^2$) particles that may constitute dark matter by using cryogenic detectors of two types (HV and iZIP) and two target materials (germanium and silicon). The experiment is being designed with an initial sensitivity to nuclear recoil cross sections ~ 1 x 10$^{-43}$ cm$^2$ for a dark matter particle mass of 1 GeV/c$^2$, and with capacity to continue exploration to both smaller masses and better sensitivities. The phonon sensitivity of the HV detectors will be sufficient to detect nuclear recoils from sub-GeV dark matter. A detailed calibration of the detector response to low energy recoils will be needed to optimize running conditions of the HV detectors and to interpret their data for dark matter searches. Low-activity shielding, and the depth of SNOLAB, will reduce most backgrounds, but cosmogenically produced $^{3}$H and naturally occurring $^{32}$Si will be present in the detectors at some level. Even if these backgrounds are x10 higher than expected, the science reach of the HV detectors would be over three orders of magnitude beyond current results for a dark matter mass of 1 GeV/c$^2$. The iZIP detectors are relatively insensitive to variations in detector response and backgrounds, and will provide better sensitivity for dark matter particle masses ( 5 GeV/c$^2$). The mix of detector types (HV and iZIP), and targets (germanium and silicon), planned for the experiment, as well as flexibility in how the detectors are operated, will allow us to maximize the low-mass reach, and understand the backgrounds that the experiment will encounter. Upgrades to the experiment, perhaps with a variety of ultra-low-background cryogenic detectors, will extend dark matter sensitivity down to the "neutrino floor", where coherent scatters of solar neutrinos become a limiting background.

Book The Low mass Limit

    Book Details:
  • Author : Noah Kurinsky
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2018
  • ISBN :
  • Pages : pages

Download or read book The Low mass Limit written by Noah Kurinsky and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment will be a 20-kg scale Si and Ge direct dark matter detection experiment designed to probe down to 300 MeV in dark matter (DM) mass through DM-nucleus scattering and 500 keV in DM electron scattering. In order to reach these low masses with appreciable sensitivity to dark matter, it needs to achieve very low energy resolution (≤ 10 ev) for nuclear recoils in both detector materials, which will be achieved using a new detector design and operating mode, CDMS HV. This detector is designed to operate at a bias of 100V to convert charges liberated in our detector targets to into phonon energy in order to resolve individual electron-hole pairs. This has never before been achieved in a kg-scale detector. In this thesis, I cover three elements of the design of the CDMS HV detectors. I discuss the detector physics controlling how charges and phonons are generated in our detector crystals, com- paring theory to results of recent experiments carried out at Stanford. I move on to describe the operating principles of our phonon-mediated charge readout, as well as the design of the CDMS HV detector. I then describe the performance tests of early CDMS HV prototypes in conjunction with the SuperCDMS SNOLAB electronics, and discuss the path towards achieving single electron-hole pair resolving detectors at the kg-scale given the performance obtained thus far. As a result of these tests, we were able to refine our noise and sensor dynamics models, and develop new metrics for diagnosing non-ideal sources of noise to aid in reducing coupling of the external environment to our detectors. In order to study the microphysics of phonon and charge production in our target crystals, we fabricated a number of gram-scale devices with various sensor designs in order to separate sensor and environmental effects from intrinsic crystal properties. These devices provided the first successful demonstrating of using voltage to amplify charge energy by production of phonons (the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke effect) in order to resolve electron-hole pairs, and opened up a new regime of dark matter and photon science at the gram-scale that we are just beginning to explore. A first dark matter search was carried out with one of these gram-scale devices, producing world-leading limits on electron-recoiling dark matter between 0.5 and 5 MeV in dark matter mass for multiple form factors. This device achieved a phonon resolution of 10 eV, allowing a single gram-day of exposure to rival kg-days of exposure in the competing liquid-noble based electron-recoil search.

Book Search for Low Mass Dark Matter Wtih SuperCDMS Soudan and Study of Shorted Electric Field Configurations in CDMS Detectors

Download or read book Search for Low Mass Dark Matter Wtih SuperCDMS Soudan and Study of Shorted Electric Field Configurations in CDMS Detectors written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The area of dark matter is one of the most interesting and exciting topics in physics today. Existing at the intersection of particle physics and astrophysics, the existence of a new dark matter particle can be used to explain many astrophysical and cosmological observations, as well as to reconcile outstanding issues in the standard model of particle physics. Experiments such as SuperCDMS are built to detect dark matter in the lab by looking for low-energy nuclear recoils produced by collisions between dark matter particles and atoms in terrestrial detectors. SuperCDMS Soudan is particularly well-suited to follow up on possible hints of low-mass dark matter seen by other recent experiments because of its low thresholds and excellent background discrimination. Analyzing SuperCDMS Soudan data to look for low-mass dark matter comes with particular challenges because of the low signal-to-noise very near threshold. However, with a detailed background model developed by scaling high-energy events down into the low-energy signal region, SuperCDMS Soudan produced worldleading limits on the existence of low-mass dark matter. In addition, a few SuperCDMS Soudan detectors experienced cold hardware problems that can affect the data collected. Of particular interest is one detector considered for the low-mass WIMP search that has one of its charge electrodes shorted to chassis ground. Three events were observed in this detector upon unblinding the SuperCDMS Soudan low-energy data, even though

Book Search for Low mass Dark Matter with SuperCDMS Soudan and Study of Shorted Electric Field Configurations in CDMS Detectors

Download or read book Search for Low mass Dark Matter with SuperCDMS Soudan and Study of Shorted Electric Field Configurations in CDMS Detectors written by Kristiana E. Schneck and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The area of dark matter is one of the most interesting and exciting topics in physics today. Experiments such as SuperCDMS are built to detect dark matter in the lab by looking for low-energy nuclear recoils produced by collisions between dark matter particles and atoms in terrestrial detectors. SuperCDMS Soudan is particularly well-suited to follow up on possible hints of low-mass dark matter seen by other recent experiments because of its low thresholds and excellent background discrimination. Analyzing SuperCDMS Soudan data to look for low-mass dark matter comes with particular challenges because of the low signal-to-noise very near threshold. However, with a detailed background model developed by scaling high-energy events down into the low-energy signal region, SuperCDMS Soudan produced world-leading limits on the existence of low-mass dark matter. However, a few SuperCDMS Soudan detectors experienced cold hardware problems that can affect the data collected. Of particular interest is one detector considered for the low-mass WIMP search that has one of its charge electrodes shorted to chassis ground. The data collected by the shorted detector may have been compromised since an electrode shorted to ground will modify the electric field in the detector. A new model of the expected backgrounds in the low-mass WIMP search is developed using the SuperCDMS Detector Monte Carlo to try to explain how the short may have affected the data collected. Finally, the consequences of a new effective field theory of dark matter-nucleon scattering are examined in the context of current and future dark matter direct detection experiments.

Book Minimizing Background for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB Dark Matter Experiment

Download or read book Minimizing Background for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB Dark Matter Experiment written by Michael A. Bowles and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sensitivity of future generations of dark-matter detectors are expected to be dominated by long-lived low-energy beta- and alpha-emitting radon daughters such as 210Pb on detector surfaces. I describe simulations indicating the detector could also be used to reduce background from material impurities plaguing rare-event searches, the commissioning of a prototype demonstration detector, and a gas handling system necessary to operate the detector. I demonstrated that the gas handling system reduces the otherwise dominant backgrounds by a factor of 62. This detector will therefore be able to detect [32Si and 210Pb] 100 times better than currently available screeners.

Book The Limiting Background in a Detector Testing Facility for SuperCDMS at SNOLAB

Download or read book The Limiting Background in a Detector Testing Facility for SuperCDMS at SNOLAB written by Shuo Liu and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SuperCDMS is the next generation of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment (CDMS), aimed at the detection of the Weakly Interacting dark matter Particles (WIMPs) with the use of phonon and ionization signals in germanium detectors operated at about 40 mK. The current experiment is operating in the Soudan underground laboratory in northern Minnesota. However, due to limitation of cosmic ray muons, in the next stage of SuperCDMS, the whole experiment will be moved to a deeper site at SNOLAB. This could reduce the influence of extraterrestrial high energy particles to a negligible level, leaving the natural radioactivity locally existing in the laboratory wall rock as the dominating background source. Along with this relocation, newly designed detectors will be implemented to further increase the sensitivity. The prototype of this kind of detector has been manufactured, but it needs to be carefully tested prior to its formal application. To thoroughly examine its performance, especially in an environment that is less affected by cosmic rays, a new detector testing facility is to be built underground at SNOLAB (STF) surrounded by a water tank serving as the passive shield against the natural radioactivity. A series of Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to investigate the effectiveness of the water tank shield, the background level and also the energy spectra of events in the detectors. The goal of 1 neutron/day and 1 Hz of gammas for external sources can be achieved.

Book Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab

Download or read book Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab written by H. Nelson and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this report we have described the broad and compelling range of astrophysical and cosmological evidence that defines the dark matter problem, and the WIMP hypothesis, which offers a solution rooted in applying fundamental physics to the dynamics of the early universe. The WIMP hypothesis is being vigorously pursued, with a steady march of sensitivity improvements coming both from astrophysical searches and laboratory efforts. The connections between these approaches are profound and will reveal new information from physics at the smallest scales to the origin and workings of the entire universe. Direct searches for WIMP dark matter require sensitive detectors that have immunity to electromagnetic backgrounds, and are located in deep underground laboratories to reduce the flux from fast cosmic-ray-muon-induced neutrons which is a common background to all detection methods. With US leadership in dark matter searches and detector R & D, a new national laboratory will lay the foundation of technical support and facilities for the next generation of scientists and experiments in this field, and act as magnet for international cooperation and continued US leadership. The requirements of depth, space and technical support for the laboratory are fairly generic, regardless of the approach. Current experiments and upgraded versions that run within the next few years will probe cross sections on the 10{sup -45}-10{sup -44} cm{sup 2} scale, where depths of 3000-4000 m.w.e. are sufficient to suppress the neutron background. On the longer term, greater depths on the 5000-6000 level are desirable as cross sections down to 10{sup -46} cm{sup 2} are probed, and of course, if WIMPs are discovered then building up a statistical sample free of neutron backgrounds will be essential to extracting model parameters and providing a robust solution to the dark matter problem. While most of the detector technologies are of comparable physical scale, i.e., the various liquid and solid-state detector media under consideration have comparable density, a notable exception is the low-pressure gaseous detectors. These detectors are very likely to play a critical role in establishing the galactic origin of a signal, and so it is important to design the lab with this capability in mind. For example, for a WIMP-nucleon cross section of 10{sup -43} cm{sup 2} (just below the present limit [20]), 100 of the current DRIFT-II modules of 1 m{sup 3} at 40 torr CS{sub 2} [63] would require a two-year exposure [61] to get the approximately 200 events [64] required to establish the signal's galactic origin. While detector improvements are under investigation, a simple scaling for the bottom of the MSSM region at 10{sup -46} cm{sup 2} would require a 100,000 m{sup 3} detector volume. If a factor of 10 reduction in required volume is achieved (e.g., higher pressure operation, more detailed track reconstruction, etc.) then an experimental hall of (50 m){sup 3} could accommodate the experiment. Because the WIMP-nucleon cross section is unknown, it is impossible to make a definitive statement as to the ultimate requirements for a directional gaseous dark matter detector, or any other device, for that matter. What is clear, however, is that whatever confidence one gives to specific theoretical considerations, the foregoing discussion clearly indicates the high scientific priority of, broad intellectual interest in, and expanding technical capabilities for increasing the ultimate reach of direct searches for WIMP dark matter. Upcoming experiments will advance into the low-mass Supersymmetric region and explore the most favored models in a complementary way to the LHC, and on a similar time scale. The combination of astrophysical searches and accelerator experiments stands to check the consistency of the solution to the dark matter problem and provide powerful constraints on the model parameters. Knowledge of the particle properties from laboratory measurements will help to isolate and reduce the astrophysical uncertainties, which will allow a more complete picture of the galactic halo and could eventually differentiate between, say, infall versus isothermal models of galaxy formation. The scientific landscape of dark matter, which spans particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, is very rich and interwoven. Exploring this exciting program following an initial detection will need many observables and hence a range of capabilities for followup experiments including different targets to sort out the mass and coupling of the WIMP, and directional sensitivity to confirm its galactic origin and open the age of WIMP astronomy. Clearly, this broad and fascinating program is ideally suited to the multi-decade span of DUSEL.

Book Position Measurement of the SuperCDMS HVeV Detector and Implementation of an Importance Sampling Algorithm in the SuperCDMS Simulation Software

Download or read book Position Measurement of the SuperCDMS HVeV Detector and Implementation of an Importance Sampling Algorithm in the SuperCDMS Simulation Software written by David S. Pedreros and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries of modern-day cosmology. Simply put, we know much more about what it is not, rather than what it actually is. The SuperCDMS collaboration works relentlessly toward making the first direct detection of this type of matter. To this effect, multiple experiments and simulations have been performed, ranging from small-scale testing of the detectors to large-scale, long-term experiments, looking for the actual detection of dark matter. In this work, I will analyze different methods to help understand the systematic errors linked to detector position in regard to the small-scale experiments IMPACT@TUNL and IMPACT@MTL, through simulation and industrial radiography respectively. We will also see how the implementation of the variance reduction method known as importance sampling can be used to improve the simulation performance of the large-scale experiment in the Canadian laboratory SNOLAB. Additionally, we will see how this method can provide not only better management of the computing resources available to the collaboration, but also how it can be used to better the understanding of the background noises, such as the signals generated by radioactive decay of different isotopes, that will be present at SNOLAB.

Book A Dark matter Search Using the Final CDMS II Dataset and a Novel Detector of Surface Radiocontamination

Download or read book A Dark matter Search Using the Final CDMS II Dataset and a Novel Detector of Surface Radiocontamination written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Substantial evidence from galaxies, galaxy clusters, and cosmological scales suggests that ~85% of the matter of our universe is invisible. The missing matter, or "dark matter" is likely composed of non-relativistic, non-baryonic particles, which have very rare interactions with baryonic matter and with one another. Among dark matter candidates, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are particularly well motivated. In the early universe, thermally produced particles with weak-scale mass and interactions would `freeze out' at the correct density to be dark matter today. Extensions to the Standard Model of particle physics, such as Supersymmetry, which solve gauge hierarchy and coupling unification problems, naturally provide such particles. Interactions of WIMPs with baryons are expected to be rare, but might be detectable in low-noise detectors. The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment uses ionization- and phonon- sensitive germanium particle detectors to search for such interactions. CDMS detectors are operated at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Minnesota, within a shielded environment to lower cosmogenic and radioactive background. The combination of phonon and ionization signatures from the detectors provides excellent residual-background rejection. This dissertation presents improved techniques for phonon calibration of CDMS II detectors and the analysis of the final CDMS II dataset with 612 kg-days of exposure. We set a limit of 3.8x10$^{-}$44 cm$^{2}$ on WIMP-nucleon spin-independent scattering cross section for a WIMP mass of 70 GeV/c$^{2}$. At the time this analysis was published, these data presented the most stringent limits on WIMP scattering for WIMP masses over 42 GeV/c$^{2}$, ruling out previously unexplored parameter space. Next-generation rare-event searches such as SuperCDMS, COUPP, and CLEAN will be limited in sensitivity, unless they achieve stringent control of the surface radioactive contamination on their detectors. Low-penetrating radiation, such as alpha and beta particles, will mimic signal in these experiments. This dissertation also presents the design and prototyping of a novel detector for surface radiocontaminants, called the BetaCage -- a neon-gas time projection chamber built from radiopure materials and operated underground with shielding similar to CDMS II. The BetaCage will enable beta screening of materials at world-best sensitivity of 10$^{-5}$/cm$^{2}$/keV/day, providing a valuable tool to the physics community.

Book Advancing the Search for Dark Matter

Download or read book Advancing the Search for Dark Matter written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An overwhelming proportion of the universe (83% by mass) is composed of particles we know next to nothing about. Detecting these dark matter particles directly, through hypothesized weak-force-mediated recoils with nuclear targets here on earth, could shed light on what these particles are, how they relate to the standard model, and how the standard model ts within a more fundamental understanding. This thesis describes two such experimental eorts: CDMS II (2007-2009) and SuperCDMS Soudan (ongoing). The general abilities and sensitivities of both experiments are laid out, placing a special emphasis on the detector technology, and how this technology has evolved from the rst to the second experiment. Some topics on which I spent signicant eorts are described here only in overview (in particular the details of the CDMS II analysis, which has been laid out many times before), and some topics which are not described elsewhere are given a somewhat deeper treatment. In particular, this thesis is hopefully a good reference for those interested in the annual modulation limits placed on the low-energy portion of the CDMS II exposure, the design of the detectors for SuperCDMS Soudan, and an overview of the extremely informative data these detectors produce. It is an exciting time. The technology I've had the honor to work on the past few years provides a wealth of information about each event, more so than any other direct detection experiment, and we are still learning how to optimally use all this information. Initial tests from the surface and now underground suggest this technology has the background rejection abilities necessary for a planned 200kg experiment or even ton-scale experiment, putting us on the threshold of probing parameter space orders of magnitude from where the eld currently stands.

Book The Coherent Photon Scattering Background in Sub GeV  c 2  Direct Dark Matter Searches

Download or read book The Coherent Photon Scattering Background in Sub GeV c 2 Direct Dark Matter Searches written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proposed dark matter detectors with eV-scale sensitivities will detect a large background of atomic (nuclear) recoils from coherent photon scattering. This background climbs steeply below $\sim10$~eVnr, far exceeding the declining rate of low-energy Compton recoils. The upcoming generation of dark matter detectors will not be limited by this background, but further development of eV-scale and sub-eV detectors will require the use of low-$Z$ target materials, such as helium, to avoid a large rate of coherent photon scattering.

Book Optimizing the Design and Analysis of Cryogenic Semiconductor Dark Matter Detectors for Maximum Sensitivity

Download or read book Optimizing the Design and Analysis of Cryogenic Semiconductor Dark Matter Detectors for Maximum Sensitivity written by Matt Christopher Pyle and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past 15 years, the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search or CDMS has searched for Weekly Interacting Massive Particle dark matter (WIMPs) using Ge and Si semiconductor crystals instrumented with both ionization and athermal phonon sensors so that the much more common electron recoil leakage caused by photons and [beta]s from naturally present radioactive elements can be easily distinguished from elastic WIMP nucleon interactions by looking at the fraction of total recoil energy which ends up as potential energy of e/h pairs. Due to electronic carrier trapping at the surface of our semiconductor crystals, electron recoils which occur near the surface have suppressed ionization measurements and can not be distinguished from WIMP induced nuclear recoils and thus sensitivity to the WIMP nucleon interaction cross section was driven in CDMS II by our ability to define a full 3D fiducial volume in which all events had full collection. To remain background free and maximally sensitive to the WIMPnucleus interaction cross section, we must improve our 3D fiducial volume definition at the same rate as we scale the mass of the detector, and thus proposed next generation experiments with an order of magnitude increase in active mass were unfortunately not possible with our previous CDMS II detector design, and a new design with significantly improved fiducialization performance is required. In this thesis, we illustrate how the complex E-field geometry produced by interdigitated electrodes at alternating voltage biases naturally encodes 3D fiducial volume information into the charge and phonon signals and thus is a natural geometry for our next generation dark matter detectors. Secondly, we will study in depth the physics of import to our devices including transition edge sensor dynamics, quasi- particle dynamics in our Al collection fins, and phonon physics in the crystal itself so that we can both understand the performance of our previous CDMS II device as well as optimize the design of our future devices. Of interest to the broader physics community is the derivation of the ideal athermal phonon detector resolution and it's cubic temperature scaling behavior which suggests that the athermal phonon detector technology developed by CDMS could also be used to discover coherent neutrino scattering and search for non-standard neutrino interaction and sterile neutrinos. These proposed resolution optimized devices can also be used in searches for exotic MeV-GeV dark matter as well as novel background free searches for 8GeV light WIMPs. Initial performance studies of our first two next generation iZIP detectors at the University of California Berkeley CDMS test facility indicate that electron recoil surface event misidentification is 2x10-5 ±2.5x10-5 (90%CL) for a recoil energy range of 8keVr-60keVr strongly indicating that z fiducial volume performance will not limit our WIMP sensitivity in next generation experiments. Furthermore, phonon only fiducial volume selections were created for nuclear recoil energies 2keVr suggesting that phonon only background free or background subtracting light WIMP mass experiments are potentially viable.

Book Background Characterization and Discrimination in the Final Analysis of the CDMS II Phase of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search

Download or read book Background Characterization and Discrimination in the Final Analysis of the CDMS II Phase of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) is designed to detectWeakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) in the Milky Way halo. The phase known as CDMS II was performed in the Soudan Underground Laboratory. The final set of CDMS II data, collected in 2007-8 and referred to as Runs 125-8, represents the largest exposure to date for the experiment. We seek collisions between WIMPs and atomic nuclei in disk-shaped germanium and silicon detectors. A key design feature is to keep the rate of collisions from known particles producing WIMP-like signals very small. The largest category of such background is interactions with electrons in the detectors that occur very close to one of the faces of the detector. The next largest category is collisions between energetic neutrons that bypass the experimental shielding and nuclei in the detectors. Analytical efforts to discriminate these backgrounds and to estimate the rate at which such discrimination fails have been refined and improved throughout each phase of CDMS. Next-generation detectors for future phases of CDMS require testing at cryogenic test facilities. One such facility was developed at the University of Minnesota in 2007 and has been used continuously since then to test detectors for the next phase of the experiment, known as SuperCDMS.

Book Advancing the Search for Dark Matter

Download or read book Advancing the Search for Dark Matter written by Scott Alexander Hertel and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An overwhelming proportion of the universe (83% by mass) is composed of particles we know next to nothing about. Detecting these dark matter particles directly, through hypothesized weak-force-mediated recoils with nuclear targets here on earth, could shed light on what these particles are, how they relate to the standard model, and how the standard model fits within a more fundamental understanding. This thesis describes two such experimental efforts: CDMS 11 (2007-2009) and SuperCDMS Soudan (ongoing). The general abilities and sensitivities of both experiments are laid out, placing a special emphasis on the detector technology, and how this technology has evolved from the first to the second experiment. Some topics on which I spent significant efforts are described here only in overview (in particular the details of the CDMS II analysis, which has been laid out many times before), and some topics which are not described elsewhere are given a somewhat deeper treatment. In particular, this thesis is hopefully a good reference for those interested in the annual modulation limits placed on the low-energy portion of the CDMS II exposure, the design of the detectors for SuperCDMS Soudan, and an overview of the extremely informative data these detectors produce. It is an exciting time. The technology I've had the honor to work on the past few years provides a wealth of information about each event, more so than any other direct detection experiment, and we are still learning how to optimally use all this information. Initial tests from the surface and now underground suggest this technology has the background rejection abilities necessary for a planned 200kg experiment or even ton-scale experiment, putting us on the threshold of probing parameter space orders of magnitude from where the field currently stands.

Book Superconducting and Low Temperature Particle Detectors

Download or read book Superconducting and Low Temperature Particle Detectors written by G. Waysand and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012-12-02 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As demonstrated by the contributions in this volume, the domain of superconducting and low-temperature devices is in a rapidly expanding phase. Interactions between materials sciences, low-temperature physics, astrophysics, nuclear and particle physics have provided the incentive for new experiments, which could ultimately record such rare interactions as double beta decay, neutrino scattering, or collisions of the elusive dark matter halo particles. The theoretical and experimental improvements achieved during the last year have been impressive. Detection of 60 keV resolution with a non-zero spin material as a target seems therefore realizable in the near future. Similarly, impressive achievements on ballistic phonons detection and superheated superconducting detectors have been presented, together with reliable techniques for developing ultra low noise electronics required by these ambitious experiments. Apart from the contributions presented during the symposium, the two original papers by Niinikoski proposing the use of bolometers as particle detectors have been included in this volume. These papers, despite their current interest, have never been published before. The comprehensive style of the papers will appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike, in particular solid-state physicists will find the volume of considerable interest, as the field of materials research continues to benefit from the type of work presented here.

Book The Limiting Background in a Detector Testing Facility for Supercdms

Download or read book The Limiting Background in a Detector Testing Facility for Supercdms written by Shuo Liu and published by LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2011-05 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last few decades, numerous experiments have been operated to search for dark matter, the mysterious component of the universe. The dark matter is unseen and only known by its gravitational effect, but it greatly outnumbers the normal matter concluded from a wide variety of evidence. Since the dark matter only interacts weakly with normal substance, the experiment to search for it is preferred to be located deeply underground and surrounded by layers of shielding materials, which is to diminish the influence of background radiations. One has to have a quantitative idea of the radiation level and the effectiveness of the proposed shielding strategy in order to operate an experiment with a desired sensitivity. This work is to list the background radiations presented at SNOLAB and to examine the water tank shield of the detector testing facility for SuperCDMS experiment by means of Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that the goal of