Speaker
Description
The low-mass region of the dark matter (DM) parameter space remains largely unexplored, as detecting Light Dark Matter (LDM) requires both nuclear recoil thresholds below 100 eV and an approach capable of increasing exposures. The Direct search Experiment for Light dark matter (DELight) aims to address this challenge by using superfluid helium-4 as a target material, exploiting its low nuclear mass, intrinsic radiopurity, as well as its dual photon and quasiparticle signal channels. Detection will be performed using Large-Area Cryogenic Microcalorimeters (LAMCALs). The latter are athermal detectors based on Magnetic Microcalorimeter (MMC) technology which offer excellent energy resolution and detection thresholds of a few eV. With an initial exposure of just 1 kg·day, DELight will already probe new regions of the parameter space, achieving sensitivities below 10⁻³⁹cm²at a LDM mass of 200 MeV/c². This serves as a starting point for a long range plan for DELight with increasing exposures and further improvements on design parameters such as the threshold and background level.
We will present the working principle of the DELight experiment and an overview of the latest progress towards its realization, including recent results from a dedicated R&D cell studying MMC operation in superfluid helium.
| Parallel session | New Physics Searches: Dark Matter and High-Frequency Gravitational Waves |
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