The DRIFT Directional Search for Dark Matter with Spin-Dependent Couplings

利用自旋相关耦合对暗物质进行 DRIFT 定向搜索

• 批准号: 0856026
• 负责人: Dinesh Loomba
• 金额: $ 37.8万
• 依托单位: University of New Mexico
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0856026&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DRIFT; Directional; Search; Dark; Matter

In this era of precision cosmology, measurements suggest that ordinary matter represents only a fraction of the total matter density in the Universe. The rest, whose effect we can only see gravitationally, appears to be dark. Particle physics models suggest that dark matter is composed of relic weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) left over from the Big Bang. Efforts to directly detect WIMPs are hampered by small interaction probabilities and large backgrounds that mimic expected dark matter signals. Fortunately, a number of unique dark matter signatures exist that can be used to discriminate against backgrounds and decisively identify WIMP interactions. The largest and most robust of these signatures, based on the predicted behavior of the WIMP flux as the Sun-Earth system moves through the galaxy, is a day-night modulation of nuclear recoil directions in the lab frame. The intellectual merit of this proposal resides in the Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks (DRIFT) Experiment's unique and powerful capabilities being brought to bear on one of the most important questions in science today. This award provides funds to support this group and to provide the funds for fiducializing DRIFT and retrofitting the present DRIFT detector in the Boulby (U.K.) Mine with such a system. Broader impacts of this work include the training of students (including under-represented minorities) in increasingly rare small-scale experiments, giving them exposure to a wide range of hardware and software experience. The UNM DRIFT group has demonstrated this capability with previous NSF funding. The DRIFT detector technology has promising applications to axion searches, Homeland Security and double-beta decay experiments.

在这个精确宇宙学的时代，测量表明，普通物质只代表宇宙中总物质密度的一小部分。其余的部分，我们只能看到引力的影响，似乎是黑暗的。粒子物理学模型表明，暗物质是由大爆炸遗留下来的弱相互作用大质量粒子（WIMP）组成的。直接探测WIMP的努力受到小的相互作用概率和模拟预期暗物质信号的大背景的阻碍。幸运的是，存在许多独特的暗物质特征，可以用来区分背景并决定性地识别WIMP相互作用。最大和最强大的这些签名，基于预测的行为的弱相互作用通量作为太阳-地球系统移动通过星系，是一个昼夜调制的核反冲方向在实验室框架。这一建议的智力价值在于从轨道（DRIFT）实验的方向反冲识别的独特和强大的能力被带到承担当今科学中最重要的问题之一。该奖项提供资金，以支持这一群体，并提供资金，以信托DRIFT和改造目前的DRIFT探测器在博尔比（英国）我有这样一个系统。这项工作的更广泛影响包括在越来越少的小规模实验中培训学生（包括代表性不足的少数群体），使他们接触到广泛的硬件和软件经验。UNM DRIFT小组已经通过之前的NSF资助证明了这种能力。DRIFT探测器技术在轴子搜索、国土安全和双β衰变实验中有很好的应用前景。