Development of a Technical Design for the Germanium Observatory for Dark Matter at DUSEL

该提案来自加州理工学院，申请资金用于开发锗暗物质天文台（GEODM）的初步设计，这是一个1.5吨有效质量的WIMP搜索实验，在60 GeV的WIMP质量下，使用CDMS II和SuperCDMS实验的技术，WIMP核子弹性散射截面达到2 × 10的负47 cm**2次方。探测器将在DUSEL 7400英尺高度的低温屏蔽设备中运行，该设备旨在在4年内每年提供4.5吨的零背景原始暴露。通过合作协议，该奖项将资助加州理工学院及其合作者为这样一个实验提供初步设计，该实验将在DUSEL地下实验室建造和运行。案例是：(1)最近的技术创新改进是当前性能的适度风险演变，因此在很大程度上是适合DUSEL S4招标的工程努力；(2) CDMS和SuperCDMS的前期工作提供了经验验证的技术性能和成本基线，为这些估算奠定了坚实的基础；(3)承担这项工作的团队在背景减少、背景拒绝、增加目标质量和科学范围方面取得了良好的进展。由于这些特点，GEODM为显著提高WIMP灵敏度或在DUSEL对可能的WIMP信号进行详细研究提供了极有希望的途径。此外，CDMS合作贡献了许多新技术，目前正在其他小组和其他领域使用。GEODM将解决低温探测器的成本挑战，这可能会进一步扩大其用途（例如，用于国土安全）。暗物质研究为学生和博士后提供了多样化的教育和广泛的职业途径，最近根据CDMS II的工作授予了6个博士学位，并且以前的学生和博士后现在担任教职和高级实验室职位的人数令人印象深刻。锗技术在暗物质搜索和寻找中微子双β衰变中的未来，取决于探测器生产中节省时间和资源的技术的发展。

This proposal, from the California Institute of Technology, requests funds to develop a Preliminary Design for the Germanium Observatory for Dark Matter (GEODM), a 1.5 ton active mass WIMP search experiment with a WIMP nucleon elastic scattering cross section reach of 2 × 10 to the power of minus 47 cm**2 at 60 GeV WIMP mass using the technology of the CDMS II and SuperCDMS experiments. The detectors will be operated at the DUSEL 7400 foot level within a cryogenic, shielded apparatus designed to provide a zero-background raw exposure of 4.5 ton year over 4 years. The award, through a Cooperative Agreement, will fund the California Institute of Technology and collaborators to produce a Preliminary Design for such an experiment to be constructed and run at the DUSEL underground laboratory. The case is made that (1) recent technical innovations improvements are a moderate risk evolution from current performance and thus are largely an engineering effort appropriate to the DUSEL S4 solicitation; (2) prior efforts on CDMS and SuperCDMS provide empirically verified technical performance and cost baselines, placing these estimates on a solid foundation; and (3) the team undertaking this effort has a proven strong track record of such evolutionary gains in background reduction, background rejection, increased target mass, and scientific reach. Because of these characteristics, GEODM provides an extremely promising path to significant gains in WIMP sensitivity or to detailed study of a possible WIMP signal at DUSEL. Further, the CDMS collaboration has contributed many novel technologies now in use by other groups and in other fields. GEODM will address the cost challenges of cryogenic detectors, which will likely broaden even further their use (e.g., for homeland security). Dark matter research provides students and postdocs with a diverse education and range of career avenues, as evidenced by the recent granting of six PhDs based on CDMS II work and the impressive number of former students and postdocs now in faculty and senior level laboratory positions. The future of germanium technology in dark matter searches, and in the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, rests on the development of time and resource-saving techniques for detector production.