the Supercdms Snolab Experiment: Searching for Elusive Dark Matter a Mile Underground

Matthew Hollister

Darwin 103
4:00 PM

Although yet to be directly observed, there is a wealth of evidence for the existence of some form of non-luminous matter distinct from the normal material that makes up our everyday world. Although an extremely challenging search, there are a number of experimental groups attempting to detect and characterize dark matter particles via a range of different methods.Matthew Hollister will discuss the SuperCDMS SNOLAB, the latest generation of a series of experiments deployed by the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search collaboration. The CDMS detection method uses silicon and germanium crystals cooled to within a few hundredths of a degree of absolute zero as targets for interaction with dark matter particles. The experiment must be well shielded from natural background radiation and cosmic rays to avoid false detections, and so is operated in underground facilities such as the SNOLAB facility in Ontario, Canada.