SuperCDMS SNOLAB construction

天体物理学证据清楚地证明了“暗物质”的存在，这种物质在自然界中是非重子的，但在银河系和更大的尺度上具有重要的引力。在专用粒子探测器中寻找暗物质粒子与普通物质的直接相互作用、在宇宙辐射中寻找暗物质湮灭的衰变产物或在大型强子对撞机上寻找此类粒子产生的迹象方面，二十年的不懈努力迄今未能确定暗物质的性质。这激发了新的更灵敏的实验，探索更大范围的暗物质参数空间。 SuperCDMS SNOLAB是一项新批准的实验，由美国能源部和美国国家科学基金会以及加拿大CFI提供资本资助，它将对质量低于~10GeV/c？的弱相互作用大质量粒子(WIMP)具有世界上最好的敏感性。SuperCDMS使用低温半导体探测器来实现超低能量阈值，并具有强大的、经过验证的背景抑制。它为低质量WIMP检测打开了一扇窗，这是大多数其他技术无法探测到的。SNOLAB的这项新实验与目前在苏丹地下实验室的运行设置相比，将显著增加目标质量，并显著降低能量阈值，提供对最低质量WIMPS的卓越灵敏度。 该提案要求加拿大SuperCDMS集团在建设SuperCDMS SNOLAB的关键时期内获得运营资金。加拿大小组成员对新的SNOLAB实验的数据采集、触发、实验基础设施和探测器测试负有关键责任。申请的资金将用于支付女王大学和不列颠哥伦比亚大学的博士后研究员和研究生、团队成员在建设阶段前往萨德伯里的旅费，以及合作会议、对合作机构的访问和会议旅费。

Astrophysical evidence clearly demonstrates the existence of "dark matter" that is non-baryonic in nature but gravitationally significant at galactic and larger scales. Two decades of dedicated effort have so far failed to identify the nature of dark matter in searches for direct interactions of dark matter particles with ordinary matter in dedicated particle detectors, for decay products of dark matter annihilation in cosmic radiation or for signatures of the production of such particles at the Large Hadron Collider. This motivates new more sensitive experiments probing over a wider range of dark matter parameter space. SuperCDMS SNOLAB is a newly approved experiment, with capital funding from DOE and NSF in the US and CFI in Canada, that will have the world's best sensitivity to Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with masses below ~10 GeV/c². SuperCDMS uses cryogenic semiconductor detectors to achieve ultra-low energy thresholds and has a strong, proven background rejection. It opens a window to low mass WIMP detection that cannot be probed by most other technologies. This new experiment at SNOLAB will have considerably increased target mass compared to the presently operating setup at the Soudan Underground Laboratory, as well as a significantly decreased energy threshold, providing superior sensitivity to the lowest mass WIMPs. This proposal requests operating funds for the Canadian SuperCDMS groups over the critical period during which SuperCDMS SNOLAB will be constructed. Canadian group members have key responsibility for data acquisition, trigger, experiment infrastructure, and detector testing for the new SNOLAB experiment. The requested funds will support postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at Queen's University and UBC, travel costs for group members to Sudbury during the construction phase, as well as collaboration meetings, visits to collaborating institutions and conference travel.