Acquisition of a Cryogenic Elementary-Particle Detector Facility for Dark Matter Searches and Neutrino Physics

一个低温元素粒子探测器将被包括斯坦福大学（主要机构）、加州大学伯克利分校和加州大学圣巴巴拉分校在内的机构财团收购。 该仪器将主要用于斯坦福大学地下设施（SUF）。 三位主要研究人员是：斯坦福大学物理学教授、SUF主任Blas Cabrera;加州大学伯克利分校物理学教授、NSF资助的粒子天体物理学中心（CfPA）主任Bernard Sadoulet;加州大学圣巴巴拉名誉教授大卫考德威尔。 Cabreras和考德威尔小组得到了美国能源部高能物理计划的支持。 这个独特的低温设施将用于操作大质量低温粒子探测器，用于暗物质和中微子物理实验的研究，以及研究工业应用。在CfPA的协调下，来自这三个机构的团队，以及来自劳伦斯伯克利实验室（LBL），圣克拉拉大学和俄罗斯巴克桑核研究所（INR）的研究人员沿着，正在寻找至少占宇宙质量90%的暗物质。 这个问题是当今宇宙学和科学中最重要的问题之一，也是CfPA的中心主题。 我们的团队正在寻找弱相互作用大质量粒子（WIMP），如超对称粒子，它们可能构成这种暗物质。 我们希望在几年内使用在非常低的温度下工作的新型探测器将以前搜索的灵敏度提高一百多倍。 通过同时测量晶体内粒子相互作用产生的电离和晶格振动，我们获得了一个无与伦比的拒绝工具对无处不在的放射性背景，限制了以前的实验。 拟议的仪器将在斯坦福大学地下设施（SUF）中运行。 它提供了大约一立方英尺的空间，温度为10 mK，并提供了超低放射性背景环境。

A Cryogenic Elementary-Particle Detector will be acquired by a consortium of institutions including Stanford University (principal institution), UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara. The instrumentation will be used primarily in the Stanford Underground Facility (SUF). The three Principal Investigators are Blas Cabrera, Professor of Physics at Stanford and Director of SUF; Bernard Sadoulet, Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley and Director of the NSF-funded Center for Particle Astrophysics (CfPA); and David Caldwell, Emeritus Professor at UC Santa Barbara. The Cabreras and Caldwell groups are supported by the DOE High Energy Physics program. This unique low temperature facility will be built to operate large-mass cryogenic particle detectors for research on dark matter and neutrino physics experiments, and for investigating industrial applications. Under the coordination of CfPA, the groups from these three institutions, along with research personnel from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), Santa Clara University and the Institute for Nuclear Research (INR) in Baksan, Russia are performing a search for the dark matter that makes up at least 90% of the mass of the universe. This problem is one of the most important in cosmology and science today and is the central theme of the CfPA. Our team is looking for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) such as supersymmetric particles, which may constitute this dark matter. We are expecting to improve the sensitivity of the previous searches by more than a hundred times within a few years using novel detectors which operate at very low temperature. By simultaneously measuring the ionization and lattice vibrations created by particle interactions within crystals, we obtain an unparalleled rejection tool against ubiquitous radioactive backgrounds which have limited previous experiments. The proposed instrument will be operated in the Stanford Underground Facility (SUF). It offers about one cubic foot of space at a temperature of 10mK and an ultra-low radioactive background environment.