Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2019
Volume 64, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, April 13–16, 2019; Denver, Colorado
Session T04: New Ideas In Dark Matter MiniSymposiumFocus
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Sponsoring Units: DAP DPF Chair: Kaixuan Ni, University of California, San Diego Room: Sheraton Plaza F |
Monday, April 15, 2019 3:30PM - 3:42PM |
T04.00001: Probing Sub-GeV Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium and HeRALD Roger K Romani, Daniel McKinsey, Junsong Lin, Scott Hertel, Vetri Velan, Alessandro Serafin Superfluid helium is a promising target for light dark matter direct detection, with good kinematic matching to low mass dark matter, intrinsic radiopurity, and several promising channels for reading out recoils. We propose HeRALD, the Helium Roton Apparatus for Light Dark matter, an experiment which will search for sub-GeV DM by monitoring superfluid helium for kinetic (phonon and roton) and atomic (singlet and triplet) excitations. TES bolometers immersed in the superfluid will detect singlet photons and triplet excimer deexcitations, while separate TES bolometers suspended above the superfluid surface will detect rotons and phonons when they ‘quantum evaporate’ individual helium atoms from the superfluid, into vacuum, and onto the detector. The binding energy of absorbing these helium atoms to the bolometer surface effectively amplifies quantum evaporation signals, allowing us to potentially reach recoil thresholds below 10 eV. Sensitivity projections indicate that a kg-scale ‘shovel ready’ detector could already explore new parameter space, with the technology ultimately allowing for searches for nuclear recoiling DM as light as 1 MeV. I will discuss the technology and instrumentation behind the HeRALD project, as well as our progress towards realizing a prototype detector. |
Monday, April 15, 2019 3:42PM - 3:54PM |
T04.00002: Exploring Low Mass Dark Matter in SuperCDMS SNOLAB Priscilla Brooks Cushman The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment will probe a range of low mass dark matter models with a suite of silicon and germanium detectors operated in both high-voltage and nuclear recoil discrimination mode. Data taken with the SuperCDMS Soudan detectors operated in HV-mode (CDMSlite) and test data with the new HVeV detectors is already carving out new parameter space. These results inform our expected sensitivity for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment, which will begin data-taking in 2020. Plans for nuclear recoil calibration and our 4-tower initial payload strategy will be presented, as well as our expected physics reach for the first science run. |
Monday, April 15, 2019 3:54PM - 4:06PM |
T04.00003: The Light Dark Matter eXperiment Omar Moreno The Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX) proposes a high-statistics search for low-mass dark matter in fixed-target electron-nucleus collisions. Ultimately, LDMX will explore thermal relic dark matter over most of the viable sub-GeV mass range to a decisive level of sensitivity. To achieve this goal, LDMX employs the missing momentum technique, where electrons scattering in a thin target can produce dark matter via "dark bremsstrahlung" giving rise to significant missing momentum and energy in the detector. To identify these rare signal events, LDMX individually tags incoming beam-energy electrons, unambiguously associates them with low energy, moderate transverse-momentum recoils of the incoming electron, and establishes the absence of any additional forward-recoiling charged particles or neutral hadrons. LDMX will employ low mass tracking to tag incoming beam-energy electrons with high purity and cleanly reconstruct recoils. A high-speed, granular calorimeter with MIP sensitivity is used to reject the high rate of bremsstrahlung background at trigger level while working in tandem with a hadronic calorimeter to veto rare photo-nuclear reactions. This talk will summarize the small-scale detector concept for LDMX, ongoing performance studies, and near future prospects. |
Monday, April 15, 2019 4:06PM - 4:18PM |
T04.00004: First Results from ABRACADABRA-10 cm: A Search for Axion Dark Matter Lindley A Winslow The axion is a well motivated dark matter candidate, however the available parameter space remains relatively unexplored, especially for masses below 1 micro-eV. ABRACADABRA-10cm is the first stage in a program to search for axion dark matter over a broad range of masses. In this talk, we will present the results from the first physics run and our plans for future stages of the experiment. |
Monday, April 15, 2019 4:18PM - 4:30PM |
T04.00005: Status and expected sensitivity in Phase II of the HAYSTAC experiment Danielle H Speller HAYSTAC (the Haloscope at Yale Sensitive to Axion Cold Dark Matter) is a tunable microwave cavity experiment searching for axion dark matter. HAYSTAC serves both as an innovation test-bed for new technologies and as a pathfinder for axion searches in the mass range 10-100$\mu$eV. Phase 1 of the experiment explored axion models from 23.15\,\textless$\,m_{a}$\,\textless$\,$24.0$\,\mu$eV. In 2019, HAYSTAC is entering its second phase of operation. Upgrades include the further adaptation of quantum measurement techniques to incorporate a new squeezed-state quantum receiver, the installation of a new dilution refrigerator, and an overhaul of the data acquisition software. I will summarize the current status of the experiment and the expected sensitivity for HAYSTAC Phase II. |
Monday, April 15, 2019 4:30PM - 4:42PM |
T04.00006: The Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) 4-cavity array Christian R Boutan The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) is a DOE "Generation 2" direct-detection dark matter project that aims to discover or rule out DFSZ axions. In the pursuit of higher mass axions, cavity diameters must shrink to achieve higher frequencies, leading to a loss in signal-to-noise from the loss in detector volume. ADMX is in the process of producing a 4-cavity array that will allow the DFSZ search to continue up to 2 GHz and beyond. However, the increase in sensitivity from multiple cavities comes at the price of added complexity. Here I will present an overview of the planned ADMX multi-cavity run and its challenges. |
Monday, April 15, 2019 4:42PM - 5:18PM |
T04.00007: Dark-Matter Small Projects New Initiatives Invited Speaker: Edward W Kolb Only one-sixth of the matter in our universe is made of the fundamental particles we understand. Understanding what the remaining “dark” matter is made of is one of the most important fundamental goals in modern science. It connects such disparate scientific areas as the formation of stars and galaxies, the earliest moments of our universe, and the constituents of matter at the smallest length scales. Astronomical evidence for dark matter has built steadily for eight decades, though the elementary particles or waves that constitute dark matter remain a mystery. Recent theoretical developments have highlighted the importance of searching for dark matter particles in the range from as heavy as a single hydrogen atom to the lightest mass consistent with galactic structure (30 orders of magnitude lighter). Remarkably, small projects at the $5M–$15M scale can explore key milestones throughout this range. By seizing these opportunities, we are now in a position to finally discover the nature of dark matter. The talk will be based on the recently completed report of a workshop "Basic Research Needs for Dark Matter Small Projects." |
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