DAMIC-M : probing 10 orders of magnitude in dark-matter mass

05.12.2018 11:15 – 12:15

The DAMIC-M experiment will have sensitivity beyond current limits for dark matter in a range of over 10 orders of magnitude in dark-matter mass. The DAMIC (Dark Matter in CCDs) experiment uses CCD detectors as targets for the detection of dark matter. Cooled CCD detectors have very low thermal and electronics noise, allowing them to detect very small ionization signals, which are produced by nuclear recoils, electronic recoils, and photon absorption within the depleted substrate. DAMIC-M is the third DAMIC experiment, and will be located 2 hours from CERN, in the laboratoire souterrain de Modane (LSM). The first DAMIC experiment, located in a shallow underground site at Fermilab, reported the world's best limits for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with masses below 4 GeV. The second DAMIC experiment is currently operating at SNOLAB, and has achieved higher mass, significantly lower backgrounds, and with a better understanding of the efficiency for detecting potential dark matter signals. The DAMIC-M experiment is now approved and funded. It will consist of a detector with 10 times larger mass, 50 times lower background rates, and 10 times lower electronics readout noise. The achieved, extremely low electronics noise, of 0.1 electrons, allows for single electrons to be detected with impressive resolution. DAMIC-M is being optimized to search for hidden-sector dark matter over a wide range of mass values that are predicted by different hidden-photon scenarios, as well as WIMPs in the 1-GeV mass range.

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Bâtiment: Ecole de Physique

Quai Ernest-Ansermet 24
1211 Genève 4
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