The XENON1T Dark Matter Project: A Project Proposal from the US Institutions of the XENON Collaboration

XENON1T 暗物质项目：美国 XENON 合作机构的项目提案

• 批准号: 1209979
• 负责人: Elena Aprile
• 金额: $ 721.21万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-15 至 2020-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1209979&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: XENON1T; Dark; Matter; Project; Proposal

This research project addresses the question of the nature of galactic dark matter with a search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), using two-phase liquid xenon (LXe) Time Projection Chambers (LXeTPCs) as part of the XENON phased program. XENON100, building upon the success of the XENON10 prototype, represents the current state-of-the-art in WIMP search detectors. With a realistic discovery potential, XENON100 has already reached a world-leading sensitivity, and continues to accrue data at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Italy towards its ultimate sensitivity reach. To fully probe a particularly favorable region of electroweak physics for WIMP dark matter in search of a first robust and statistically significant discovery, the next phase of the XENON program will be a detector at the ton scale - XENON1T. The worldwide race towards direct dark matter detection has been dramatically accelerated by the remarkable progress and evolution of LXeTPCs. They have shifted the scale of target mass from a few to tens of kilograms whilst simultaneously reducing both electronic and nuclear recoil backgrounds to extremely low levels. The XENON collaboration has demonstrated the effective scaling of LXeTPCs with phased detectors of increasing sensitivity of at least an order of magnitude, and is ready to move to the ton scale. This award will provide funding to the US groups for the construction of the XENON1T detector, cryogenics infrastructure and calibration systems. This experiment is based on a TPC with 2.2 ton of LXe viewed by low radioactivity photomultiplier tubes. By exploiting the excellent self-shielding and 3D position resolution of a LXeTPC, by selecting existing low radioactivity detector materials and by placing the detector in a large active water shield and Cherenkov muon veto, the overall event rate within the fiducial target of 1.1 ton is estimated to be over a factor of 100 lower than the background measured in XENON100. This rate translates to less than one event per ton per year in the WIMP search region - an unprecedented low background level for a dark matter experiment.Broader Impact: The XENON scientific goal to detect the missing mass in the Universe has all the ingredients to captivate the interests and imagination of students and the general public alike. The technological advances of this project can impact society in a number of ways: liquid xenon imaging detectors and related technologies find applications in several fields outside particle astrophysics, including homeland security and medical imaging research.

这项研究项目通过使用两相液体氙（LXE）时间投影室（LXETPC）来解决弱相互作用的巨大颗粒（WIMP）的问题的性质问题。 Xenon100建立在Xenon10原型的成功之上，代表了WIMP搜索探测器中当前的最新技术。具有现实的发现潜力，Xenon100已经达到了世界领先的敏感性，并继续在意大利的意大利实验室Nazionali del Gran Sasso（LNG）中获得数据，以实现其最终的敏感性。为了完全探测电动wimd暗物质的电动物理区域特别有利的区域，以寻找第一个健壮且具有统计学意义的发现，XENON程序的下一阶段将是TON量表-XENON1T的检测器。通过LXETPC的显着进步和演变，全球朝向直接暗物质检测的竞赛已经大大加快了。他们已经将目标质量的规模从几公斤转移到了数十公斤，同时将电子和核后坐力背景降低到极低的水平。 XENON协作证明了LXETPC的有效尺度，其阶段性检测器的灵敏度至少至少为数量级，并准备移至TON量表。该奖项将为美国团体提供资金，用于建造异种探测器，低温基础设施和校准系统。该实验基于TPC，其LXE通过低放射性光电倍增管观察到了2.2吨的LXE。通过选择现有的低放射性检测器材料并将探测器放置在大型活跃的水上屏蔽和Cherenkov Muon否决权中，通过选择现有的低放射性检测器材料的出色自我屏蔽和3D位置分辨率，总体事件速率在1.1吨的总体事件速率内估计比Xenon100中的背景估计的100倍低于100倍。在WIMP搜索区域，该速度每年每吨不到一个事件 - 暗物质实验的前所未有的低背景水平。BRODER的影响：Xenon科学目标是检测宇宙中缺失的质量，具有吸引学生和普通公众的利益和想象力的所有成分。该项目的技术进步可以以多种方式影响社会：液体氙气探测器和相关技术在粒子天体物理学以外的几个领域中找到应用，包括国土安全性和医学成像研究。