Collaborative Proposal: The XENON Dark Matter Project: Construction and Underground Operation of a 100 kg Detector

提案编号：0705337机构：哥伦比亚大学校长：艾普里尔，埃琳娜提案编号：0705326机构：威廉马什赖斯大学校长：奥伯莱克，UweNSF博士：物理？氙暗物质项目：100公斤探测器的建造和地下运行 暗物质的发现对宇宙学、天体物理学和粒子物理学都具有重要意义。尽管存在极端的挑战，但对被认为构成暗物质的弱相互作用大质量粒子（WIMPs）的研究仍在继续进行加速器，太空和地下实验。最终，只有天体物理学观测才能确定WIMP是否存在于自然界中，但在实验室实验中直接检测WIMP-核散射的重要性是公认的。美国在直接检测方面处于世界领先地位;然而，目标质量大幅增加的更高灵敏度实验和复杂的背景抑制方案是未来进展和发现的关键。该奖项为哥伦比亚和赖斯小组继续开展氙暗物质计划提供支持，并建造了一个100公斤的基准质量探测器（氙100）。灵敏度目标为2x10^45 cm ^2。这是通过同时检测纯液体氙中的电离和闪烁信号所提供的背景鉴别来实现的。XENON 100基于XENON 10原型的设计和技术，总重量增加了约10倍。氙100是一个可以以最小风险建造的实验，到2009年给出第一个物理结果，届时LHC将搜索超对称暗物质。在这项工作的广泛影响中，XENON科学具有吸引学生和公众的兴趣和想象力的所有成分。XENON技术相关的工作可以通过多种方式影响社会。液体氙成像探测器技术是粒子天体物理学以外的几个领域应用的主要候选者，包括国家安全和医学成像研究。

PROPOSAL NUMBER: 0705337INSTITUTION: Columbia University PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Aprile, ElenaPROPOSAL NUMBER: 0705326INSTITUTION: William Marsh Rice University PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Oberlack, UweNSF PROGRAM: PHY ? UNDERGROUND PHYSICSTITLE: Collaborative Proposal: The XENON Dark Matter Project: Construction and Underground Operation of a 100 kg Detector ABSTRACTThe discovery of dark matter is of fundamental importance to cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics. Despite the extreme challenges, the search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) believed to constitute the dark matter, continues with accelerator, space and underground based experiments. Ultimately, only astrophysical observations can determine whether WIMPs exist in nature, but the importance of direct detection of WIMP-nucleus scattering in laboratory experiments is well recognized. The US is in a world-leading position in direct detection; however, better-sensitivity experiments with sizeable increase in target mass and sophisticated background rejection schemes are key to future progress and discovery. This award provides support to the Columbia and Rice groups for their continuation of the XENON Dark Matter Program, with the construction of a 100 kg fiducial mass detector (XENON100). The sensitivity goal is 2x10^45 cm^2. This is achieved through background discrimination provided by the simultaneous detection of ionization and scintillation signals in pure liquid xenon. XENON100 is built on the design and technology established with the XENON10 prototype, with a factor of ~10 increase in total Xe mass. XENON100 is an experiment that can be built with minimum risk, giving first physics results by 2009, when the LHC will be searching for Supersymmetric dark matter. Among the Broader Impacts of this work, the XENON science has all the ingredients to captivate the interest and imagination of students and the general public alike. XENON technical-related work can impact society in a number of ways. The liquid xenon imaging detector technology is a prime candidate for applications in several fields outside particle astrophysics, including national security and medical imaging research.