Speaker
Description
DarkSide-20k, currently under construction at LNGS, is a dark matter direct-detection experiment employing a dual-phase liquid argon TPC filled with more than 50 tonnes of underground argon. As the largest detector of its kind, it presents substantial technical and integration challenges.
To validate new technologies and reduce construction risk, an intermediate-scale prototype (the Mockup) was developed to bridge the transition from predecessors at the 50 kg (DarkSide-50) and 3.6 tonne (DEAP) stages. The Mockup design follows that of DarkSide-20k, featuring an octagonal PMMA TPC immersed in one tonne of liquid argon, with a wire extraction grid and field shaping provided by a conductive polymer coating (Clevios). The mockup programme enabled testing of novel components, assembly procedures, and system integration.
This talk presents the results of the Mockup programme, including QA/QC methods, HV and cryogenics and operations results, and discusses how these methods inform the integration and QA/QC strategy for the full-scale DarkSide-20k TPC.