2026 Canadian Astroparticle Physics Community Meeting

27 Jul 2026, 09:00 → 29 Jul 2026, 19:00 Canada/Eastern

REGISTRATION FOR IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE OPENS FEB 17

The Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute is delighted to invite you to the National Meeting at Queen's University from July 28-July 29. This event is open to all members of the Canadian astroparticle physics research community. 

 

The meeting will follow a special one-day HQP workshop on July 27.

Monday 27 July

09:00 → 10:30 HQP Workshop

10:30 → 10:45 Break

10:45 → 12:15 HQP Workshop

12:15 → 13:15 Lunch

13:15 → 14:45 HQP Workshop

14:45 → 15:00 Break

15:00 → 16:30 HQP Workshop

17:30 → 19:30 Social

Tuesday 28 July

08:30 → 09:00 Registration & Breakfast

09:00 → 09:30 McDonald Institute: Keynote

09:30 → 10:00 McDonald Institute: HQPAC Updates

09:30 Break

10:00 → 10:30 Break

10:30 → 12:50 Dark Matter: Experiments

10:30 Dark Matter Experiment Overview

Speaker: Michela Lai (Queen's University)

11:30 HVeV Run 5: The Latest Generation of High-Voltage, Electronvolt-Scale Cryogenic Silicon Calorimeters in the Search for Dark Matter

Speaker: Mason Buchanan (University of Toronto)

11:50 The CATCHY Experiment: Scaling Sensitivity with N^2

Speaker: Avani Bhardwaj

12:10 Nuclear Physics in Liquid Argon with DEAP-3600

Speaker: Peter Taylor (Queens University)

12:30 Status and Outlook of the AURORA Low Mass Dark Matter Detector

Speaker: Shailaja Mohanty

12:50 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:00 Integrated Project Delivery Centre: Overview

15:00 → 15:30 Break

15:30 → 17:10 Dark Matter: Bubble Chambers

15:30 Status of the Scintillating Bubble Chamber Experiment

Speaker: Carter Garrah (Queen's University)

15:50 PICO

Speaker: Dr William Woodley (University of Alberta)

16:10 Molecular Dynamics Simulation for Bulk Fluid Modelling of the SBC Dark Matter Experiment

Speaker: Ezri Wyman (Queen's University)

16:30 Toward Two-Photon Absorption Characterization of Silicon Photomultipliers for Dark Matter Detector Applications

Speaker: Udaykaran Madaan (TRIUMF)

16:50 Bubble Chamber Sensitivity to Composite Dark Matter

Speaker: Alex Hayes (Queen's University)

18:30 → 20:30 Social: Dinner Reception

Wednesday 29 July

08:30 → 09:00 Breakfast

09:00 → 10:30 Astroparticle Physics: New Scientist

09:00 Quantum sensing for (very)light dark matter direct detection

Dark matter direct detection has seen a surge of progress in the mass window of 1 MeV - 1 GeV, however very-light but particle light dark matter remains a stubbornly elusive target. In this talk I will explain a detection strategy using "recoilless" quantum observables that are accessible via interferometry. These observables allow one to access particle-like dark matter all the way down to the ~5 eV limit where wave-like phenomena begin to dominate.

Speaker: Ryan Plestid

09:30 The search for rare events with cryogenic detectors

Cryogenic (O(mK)) technologies are used for a variety of applications in astroparticle, nuclear, and quantum physics. Through my research I seek to optimize these technologies to measure very faint signals. This includes experiments searching for dark matter (SuperCDMS and COSINUS) and highly forbidden nuclear decays (RAMPS/LUCE). These experiments all utilize similar cryogenic systems but have a wide diversity in goals. This talk will provide an overview of my research portfolio introducing each of the above experiments and some of the excellent science that takes place at SNOLAB.

Speaker: Matt Stukkel

10:00 Talk 3

Speaker: Vijay Iyer

10:30 → 11:00 Break

11:00 → 12:30 Astroparticle Physics: Theory

11:00 Exploring the Dark Sector at Medium-Energy with DarkLight

Speaker: Dean Reiter (TRIUMF)

11:20 Dark Matter–Induced UV Radiation and the Formation of Supermassive Black Hole Seeds

Speaker: Han Wu (Queen's University, McDonald Institute)

11:40 Constraining Neutrinophilic Scalars from Electroweak Precision

Speaker: Drona Vatsyayan (Carleton University)

12:00 Searching for Ultra Heavy Dark Matter in Mica

Speaker: Andrew Buchanan (Queen's University)

12:30 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:10 Multimessenger: Contributed Talks

14:00 Searching for astrophysical neutrino sources with high energy neutrino detectors

One of the key open questions of high energy astrophysics is the nature of astrophysical particle accelerators. Neutrinos may hold the key to solving this mystery: if protons are being accelerated in addition to electrons in the source, neutrinos will be produced alongside their electromagnetic radiation, providing a clear signature for the type of particles involved. Using signatures from multiple messenger particles, including neutrinos, gamma-rays, and gravitational waves, can provide meaningful constraints on particle acceleration in those sources. In 2013, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory first announced the detection of a TeV - PeV flux of astrophysical neutrinos, although the source of the vast majority of those neutrinos remains unknown. In this talk, I will discuss an analysis for IceCube neutrinos from extreme BL Lac objects, where recent modeling efforts of the full electromagnetic spectrum can be used to provide a neutrino expectation for the search. Results from the neutrino search will provide important constraints to understanding particle acceleration mechanisms in these sources. I will also give an outlook for a new Canadian-led neutrino detector, the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE), which will be deploying its first line soon and will have good sensitivity to Galactic neutrino sources.

Speaker: Jessie Thwaites (Queen's University)

14:30 Status and future of HELIX experiment

Speaker: Conor McGrath (Queen's University)

14:50 P-ONE Status Summary

The Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment (P-ONE) is a cubic-kilometre scale neutrino telescope planned to be deployed 2.6 km deep in the Pacific Ocean off Canada’s West Coast. P-ONE is designed to observe high-energy TeV to PeV astrophysical neutrinos and aims to identify their sources throughout the universe. The detector will consist of a three-dimensional lattice of optical modules instrumented along kilometre tall mooring lines. These modules measure the deposition of Cherenkov light induced by secondary particles in neutrino interactions, which is subsequently used to identify the flavour, energy, and direction of incident neutrinos. P-ONE will be deployed in phases, the first of which is P-ONE-1, the first mooring line of the telescope. To date, P-ONE-1 has been assembled and has undergone successful preliminary water testing. With the scheduled deployment of P-ONE-1 on the horizon later this summer, this talk will give a status overview of P-ONE, highlighting the design of P-ONE-1, expected performance, and plans for the future.

Speaker: Jakub Stacho

15:10 → 15:40 Break

15:40 → 17:10 Multimessenger: Contributed Talks

15:40 P-ONE Demonstrator PMT Characterization

Speaker: Bryan Owens (Queen's University)

16:00 DORY: An Optical Monitoring and Calibration Module for the nEXO Outer Detector

Speaker: Samin Majidi

16:20 The development of radon assaying facility at University of Windsor for rare physics searches

Speaker: Abo-bakr Emara

16:40 Noble Elements Workshop Debrief

17:10 → 17:40 McDonald Institute: Wrap Up