Speaker
Description
We present the preliminary design of the Argon Ultra‑Radiopure Observatory for Rare‑event Analysis (AURORA), a proposed experiment using doped argon and targeting dark matter in the sub‑GeV mass range. The experiment will feature a dual-phase time projection chamber (TPC) instrumented with digital silicon photomultipliers and filled with argon mixed with a few ppm of dopants, such as xenon, trimethylamine (TMA), triethylamine (TEA), or trimethylgallium (TMG), pending planned characterization at Queen’s University. The TPC design maximizes the signal‑to‑background ratio in the keV and sub‑keV energy region, while the addition of dopants photosensitive to argon de‑excitation light will further enhance the ionization yield. This approach will enable, for the first time, exploration of dark matter as light as a few tens of MeV/c$^2$, reaching down to the neutrino fog after about one year of data taking.
We will present the status of the AURORA design, progress on the simulation and validation plan and preliminary sensitivity projections that incorporate known systematics.
| Keyword-1 | Dark Matter |
|---|---|
| Keyword-2 | TPC |
| Keyword-3 | SiPMs |