DarkSide-20k Dark Matter Detector: UK photosensor production

by Alice Hamer (University of Edinburgh)

Friday 3 Nov 2023, 13:00 → 14:00 Europe/London

Niels Bohr Seminar Room (Schuster)

The DarkSide-20k experiment will search for dark matter particles using a liquid argon time projection chamber. With an active mass of 50 tons of argon, DarkSide-20k expects to probe further into the WIMP parameter space and produce world leading results. Interaction signals in the detector will be recorded by arrays of silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), an increasingly popular choice for such detectors due to their advantages over the alternatives. A thorough programme of testing and characterisation will be carried out on these SiPMs before their installation in the detector, and UK groups are responsible for the manufacture and testing of the SiPMs that will be used in the neutron veto. In this seminar I will give an overview of the status of dark matter physics before presenting the Darkside-20k experiment. I will then discuss the ongoing work of the DarkSide-UK collaborators towards the production and testing of the veto SiPMs.