Single-Electron Quantum Devices for Ultra-Low Background Particle Detection Experiments

From observation of the positron and muon elementary particles in cloud chambers in 1936, to the confirmation of the existence of the Higgs Boson at the Large Hadron Collider in 2013, our understanding of the fundamental make-up of the Universe has been enabled by new particle detector technologies.

Over recent decades, advances in semiconductor technology have been a major driving force in unlocking some of the biggest secrets of the Universe. Whilst semiconductor detectors are only truly understandable within the framework of quantum mechanics, cutting-edge research in nanotechnology and quantum physics have yielded a new generation of single-electron quantum devices that operate at the ultimate level of miniaturization and rely on carefully generated and controlled quantum resources, including entanglement and superposition. Can this second generation of semiconducting quantum devices be applied to some of the open questions in physics beyond the Standard Model, such as the mass of the neutrino and the nature of dark matter?

We will organize a three-day workshop, hosted at SNOLAB in Canada, that brings together international researchers from the UK, Canada and Switzerland with expertise in semiconductor quantum devices, particle physics and detector development, and ultra-low measurement environments. The meeting format will be interactive in order to promote collaborative thinking over a series of presentations, and to identify challenges and plan for future quantum-enabled particle detection experiments.