Projects Archive: Depleted Argon cryogenic Scintillation and Ionization Detection, DarkSide
 
Overview
Picture: Overview
Photo of the DS-50 Time Projection Chamber during its assembly
Research Field:
Particles from Space

DarkSide Website
The DarkSide (Depleted Argon cryogenic Scintillation and Ionization Detection) project is a Dark Matter search carried out at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS), built below the Gran Sasso mountain in the Apennines. A two-phase Time Projection Chamber, filled with special low-background argon, will be used to detect low-energy recoils, possibly induced by the rare interactions of WIMPs with ordinary matter.

DarkSide-50, with a 50 kg active mass of argon, is the first physics detector of the DarkSide family and it will be deployed at LNGS during the first quarter of 2013. To efficiently suppress the background, the argon cryostat will be surrounded by a 4 meter stainless steel sphere, filled with boron-loaded liquid scintillator, and by a 11mx10m high-purity water tank, both serving as active vetoes. The program is designed to progress towards multi-ton detectors with a high sensitivity for WIMP detection, and the veto infrastructure has therefore been sized to host future multi-tonne argon detectors.

DarkSide Website

 
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