UK Involvement in Direct Dark Matter Searches
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Physics
Abstract
Future direct dark matter searches will require instruments with improved sensitivity and complementary targets and techniques in order to claim a discovery, and then move to more detailed studies of the particle properties and astrophysical parameters. UK researchers are in an excellent position to participate in the world leading experiments, with significant progress in sensitivity achieved by ZEPLIN-III (liquid xenon target) and EDELWEISS-II (cryogenic germanium), experiments with established UK participation, and with a recent recruitment to the UK bringing a new involvement in DEAP/CLEAN (liquid argon). We anticipate a leading UK role in scale up to a tonne fiducial mass and beyond, probing the majority of the parameter space favoured by the most credible WIMP dark matter models. This proposal focuses on the technical development work necessary to design the EURECA and LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiments, to mitigate technical risks and improving sensitivity. Meeting these goals will also facilitate the positioning of the UK teams for leadership roles in the construction, operation and exploitation of EURECA and LZ.
Planned Impact
The technologies being developed are state-of-the-art in terms of particle detection and identification. The detection of WIMPs requires technology which can also detect fast neutrons and even neutrinos. These are of interest to many security-related issues and some developments in this direction to look for neutron production and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering could follow on. The subject of dark matter scores highly in the public interest. So far the public have followed avidly all the evidence and efforts to make detections, in spite of no credible evidence for discovery yet, but a convincing positive announcement would re-invigorate the interest and doubtless attract young people into following science as a career. For the national funding agencies, a detection would allow a new planning regime with clear and more targeted goals for future studies.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Hans Kraus (Principal Investigator) | |
Samuel Henry (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Armengaud E
(2015)
Development and underground test of radiopure ZnMoO 4 scintillating bolometers for the LUMINEU 0?2ß project
in Journal of Instrumentation
Armengaud E
(2017)
Performance of the EDELWEISS-III experiment for direct dark matter searches
in Journal of Instrumentation
Armengaud E
(2017)
Development of 100 Mo -containing scintillating bolometers for a high-sensitivity neutrinoless double-beta decay search.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Arnaud Q
(2018)
Optimizing EDELWEISS detectors for low-mass WIMP searches
in Physical Review D
Bergé L
(2018)
Complete event-by-event a / ? ( ß ) separation in a full-size TeO 2 CUORE bolometer by Neganov-Luke-magnified light detection
in Physical Review C
Chernyak D
(2015)
Effect of tungsten doping on ZnMoO4 scintillating bolometer performance
in Optical Materials
Danevich F
(2014)
Impact of geometry on light collection efficiency of scintillation detectors for cryogenic rare event searches
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Mikhailik V
(2015)
Luminescence and scintillation properties of CsI: A potential cryogenic scintillator
in physica status solidi (b)
Petricca F
(2016)
New results on low-mass dark matter from the CRESST-II experiment
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Strauss R
(2016)
The CRESST-III low-mass WIMP detector
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series