NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forums |
Organized by: Prof. Lu Lu
Events on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
- Recent Results from the COUPP Dark Matter Search
- Time: 2:30 pm
- Place: 4274 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Andrew Sonnenschein, Fermilab
- Abstract: Bubble chambers have emerged as promising detectors for Weakly Interacting Massive dark matter Particles (WIMPs). A very high degree of background discrimination can be achieved by tuning the thermodynamic parameters to avoid nucleation by electron recoils, while maintaining low nuclear-recoil thresholds. Nuclear recoils from WIMPs can be discriminated from alpha particle induced events by analysis of the acoustic pulses produced by the expanding bubbles. The COUPP collaboration operated a 4-kg CF3I bubble chamber at SNOLAB in 2010-2011 and is in the process of commissioning a 60-kg chamber. Initial data from SNOLAB demonstrate reduced alpha backgrounds and greatly improved sensitivity to WIMPs.
- Host: Karsten Heeger