Cryogenic detectors for dark matter: from scinitillation to brittle fracture

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Cryogenic calorimeters are striding towards understanding the nature of the dark matter that constitutes most the matter in our Universe. Operating at a temperature barely above absolute zero, these detectors act as very sensitive thermometers registering particle interactions. Coupled with a measurement of ionization or scintillation, they are able to reject the dominant radioactive backgrounds. Though ionization calorimeters currently have an edge in sensitivity, more targets are needed to understand the remaining backgrounds and verify a dark matter signal, as well as to carry out other rare-event searches. We therefore propose to study the scintillation of various materials at low temperature to make scintillation calorimeters.