HE Seminar
Speaker: Alden Fan- UCLA
Title: Recent dark matter search results from DarkSide-50 using underground argon
Host: Emilija Pantic
Room: 432
Abstract: While there is tremendous astrophysical and cosmological evidence for dark matter, its precise nature is one of the biggest open questions in modern physics. Direct detection experiments are aiming to observe the scattering of dark matter off normal matter. With the liquid noble technology leading the way in WIMP sensitivity, no conclusive signals have been observed yet. The DarkSide experiment is looking for WIMP dark matter using a liquid argon target located deep underground at Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy. DarkSide-50 is the first physics-capable detector in the DarkSide program, currently filled with argon obtained from underground sources, which is greatly reduced in radioactive 39Ar. DarkSide-50 recently made the most sensitive measurement of the 39Ar activity in underground argon and used it to set the strongest WIMP dark matter limit using liquid argon to date. Overviews of the DarkSide program and of the recent results from DarkSide-50 will be presented.
