DEAP-3600 Operation and Analysis

DEAP-3600操作与分析

• 批准号: SAPPJ-2016-00023-2
• 负责人: Jillings, Christopher
• 金额: $ 7.65万
• 依托单位: Laurentian University of Sudbury
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=616833
• 关键词: DEAP; 3600; Operation; Analysis

The DEAP collaboration has been very active with construction, implementation and commissioning of the DEAP-3600 dark matter detector at SNOLAB. Operation of the detector will continue through the period covered by this request, and will require significant collaboration effort, enabled by the requested funds.The origin of the dark matter in our universe is currently one of the most important questions in particle astrophysics. It is well-established that most of the matter in our universe is dark. A favored hypothesis is that the dark matter consists of WIMPs, weakly interacting massive particles, which could be detected by observing their elastic scattering from nuclei. This proposal builds on research using liquid argon for a sensitive dark matter search. The current best limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross-section is approximately 7.6x10^-46 cm^2 for a WIMP mass of 33 GeV, obtained by the LUX collaboration. Scaling the current-generation experiments to larger masses is critical since current theoretical models predict that improvements of sensitivity of several orders of magnitude may be needed before dark matter particles can be detected. Our research targets sensitivity to the WIMP-nucleon cross-section of 10^-46 cm^2 for a 100-GeV WIMP, and with good sensitivity to high-mass WIMPs. Noble liquids as low-energy particle astrophysics detectors have gained much interest since many of these can be cleaned to extremely low levels of radioactivity, and it is recognized that these can be used to build very large target mass detectors. Unique to the DEAP-3600 experiment is the novel technique of providing discrimination based on the time evolution of the scintillation pulse. This leads to a simple detector design that can be scaled to a very large target mass. The detector includes a large spherical acrylic vessel viewed by photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) to allow the recording of the evolution of a scintillation event in the argon. The PMT positions for each event will be used to estimate the initial event vertex, and serve as the primary rejection for external-source background events to allow a fiducial target mass of approximately 1000 kg of argon. The experiment resides in a large shielding tank approximately 8 meters in diameter and 8 meters high. Construction of the detector was completed in 2015, and the collaboration has been commissioning the detector systems and performing detector calibration, in preparation for the science run with liquid argon. This proposal will lead to further training of HQP in Canada. In addition to attracting students and international highly qualified researchers, it is anticipated that several post-doctoral fellows and RAs will be supported by the requested funds, in addition to technical personnel to enable operations at the experimental site.

DEAP 的合作在 SNOLAB 的 DEAP-3600 暗物质探测器的建造、实施和调试方面一直非常活跃。探测器的运行将在该请求涵盖的期间持续进行，并且需要在所请求的资金的支持下进行大量的合作。宇宙中暗物质的起源是目前粒子天体物理学中最重要的问题之一。众所周知，我们宇宙中的大部分物质都是黑暗的。一个受欢迎的假设是，暗物质由弱相互作用的大粒子组成，可以通过观察它们从原子核的弹性散射来检测。该提案建立在使用液氩进行敏感暗物质搜索的研究基础上。目前，对于 33 GeV 的 WIMP 质量，自旋无关 WIMP 核子横截面的最佳限制约为 7.6x10^-46 cm^2，由 LUX 合作获得。将当前一代的实验扩展到更大的质量至关重要，因为当前的理论模型预测，在检测到暗物质粒子之前，可能需要将灵敏度提高几个数量级。我们的研究目标是对 100 GeV WIMP 的 10^-46 cm^2 WIMP 核子截面敏感，并对高质量 WIMP 具有良好的敏感度。惰性液体作为低能粒子天体物理探测器引起了人们的广泛兴趣，因为其中许多液体可以被净化到极低的放射性水平，并且人们认识到这些液体可以用来建造非常大的目标质量探测器。 DEAP-3600 实验的独特之处在于基于闪烁脉冲的时间演化提供辨别的新技术。这导致了一种简单的探测器设计，可以扩展到非常大的目标质量。该探测器包括一个大型球形丙烯酸容器，可通过光电倍增管 (PMT) 观察，以记录氩气中闪烁事件的演变。每个事件的 PMT 位置将用于估计初始事件顶点，并用作外部源背景事件的主要拒绝，以允许大约 1000 kg 氩气的基准目标质量。实验在一个直径约8米、高8米的大型屏蔽罐中进行。探测器的建造于 2015 年完成，双方合作一直在调试探测器系统并进行探测器校准，为液氩科学运行做好准备。该提案将导致总部在加拿大的进一步培训。除了吸引学生和国际高素质研究人员外，预计所要求的资金还将支持几名博士后研究员和研究助理，以及支持实验基地运作的技术人员。