Freon filled bubble chambers have several characteristics that strongly complement other dark matter search techniques. Starting operation in 2023, PICO-500 will be the focus of PICO scientific efforts through this decade. Larger detectors require a candidate material to replace the synthetic silica as the inner vessel container. Several candidate materials are under investigation, and...
It has long been known that most of the matter in our Universe is dark. The direct detection of dark matter particle interactions is one of the most important topics in particle physics - a positive measurement would provide unambiguous evidence of the particle nature of dark matter in the Universe. In this talk we will present an overview of the phased approach to dark matter searches by the...
I will present the science case and the status of DARWIN, a liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC) with a target mass of ~40 t. It will be sensitive to WIMP dark matter interactions down to the neutrino floor, the double beta decay of Xe-136, will allow for a precision measurement of low energy solar neutrinos, and will be sensitive to many other rare processes as well
Increased attention to low mass dark matter has necessitated the need for detectors with lowered energy thresholds. The Scintillating Bubble Chamber, to be installed at SNOLAB in 2022, builds on the world-leading work of the PICO collaboration, replacing the fluorine-based target with a noble liquid. The associated reduction in gamma sensitivity allows a much lower threshold to be set. Plans...
DarkSide-LowMass is a tonne-scale liquid argon time projection chamber (LAr TPC) being planned by the Global Argon Dark Matter Collaboration (GADMC) to search for dark matter candidates with masses below 10 GeV/c^2 by optimizing the TPC for an electron-counting analysis and using underground argon that has been further depleted in argon-39. The DarkSide-50 detector has previously set leading...
The proposed Oscura project plans to deploy a skipper-CCD detector with 10 kg of active mass to search for low mass dark matter at SNOLAB. This projects brings together the teams working in previous CCD and skipper-CCD experiments (DAMIC,SENSEI, DAMIC-M) and is currently in its R&D stage. I will discuss the scientific reach of this project, and its status and plans.
The NEWS-G collaboration searches for low mass dark matter particles with spherical proportional counters (SPCs) filled with light atomic mass gases. The current phase of the experiment, a 140-cm diameter SPC, is set to start searching for dark matter as soon as spring or summer 2021. The collaboration is planning to replace the commercial copper SPC with a fully electroformed SPC to be...
Superconducting circuits are emerging among the leading technologies to develop quantum processors. There are increasing evidences that a low-radioactivity environment could largely benefit next-generation quantum bits both in terms of coherence time and quantum error correction protocols. In this talk I will review the status and perspectives of the studies relating radioactivity to quantum bits.
Researching the Effects of the Absence and Presence of Ionizing Radiation (REPAIR) is a deep-underground radiobiology experiment investigating the effects of Natural Background Radiation (NBR) on biological systems. Utilizing a specialized experimental incubator that was designed and engineered to shield NBR below levels found at the surface, REPAIR is using several biological model systems to...
The origin of neutrino mass is one of the central puzzles in particle physics today. It is intimately connected to the question of whether neutrinos can act as their own antiparticle, with fundamental implications for both particle physics and cosmology. The only known experimental approach that can be practically used to address this question is the search for neutrinoless double beta decay,...
Despite tremendous progress in understanding the fundamental properties of neutrinos over the past decades, several key questions remain unanswered. In particular, we do not yet know if neutrinos are Majorana particles, i.e., are neutrinos and antineutrinos identical? The most sensitive experimental probe of the Majorana nature of the neutrino is to search for the lepton-number violating...
The LEGEND Collaboration pursues an experimental program to discover the neutrinoless double-beta decay of Ge-76, using an array of high-purity Ge detectors operated in a bath of liquid argon. The program follows a staged approach starting with a 200-kg mass experiment currently under preparation at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy. LEGEND-200 will begin operations in 2021, reaching in five...
The NEXT project will be presented, describing the excellent performance of the current NEXT-White apparatus (5 kg of enriched xenon), and the status of NEXT-100 detector (100 kg of enriched xenon), currently under construction. Plans for the ton-scale phase will also be discussed. Currently two options are being studied by the collaboration. NEXT-HD would be a detector with a mass in the...
Traditional optical neutrino detectors have fallen into two general categories: Cherenkov detectors that utilize the prompt, directional light from superluminal charged particles, and scintillator detectors that use the isotropic light from excitation of aromatic molecules via ionization. Both types have advantages and disadvantages as regards to tracking, energy resolution, and particle...
The possible need of nearly 50 tonnes of 136Xe to search for neutrinoless double beta decay motivates an investigation of economical ways to enrich the xenon. The technique currently available at a limited number of manufacturers is centrifuge separation. Distillation is a potential alternative that relies on the isotopic variation of vapour pressures. Our group has provided the first credible...