Acquisition of a Cryogenic Elementary-Particle Detector Facility for Dark Matter Searches and Neutrino Physics

采购用于暗物质搜索和中微子物理的低温基本粒子探测器设施

• 批准号: 9512242
• 负责人: Blas Cabrera
• 金额: $ 36万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1995
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1995-09-01 至 2001-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9512242&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Acquisition; Cryogenic; Elementary; Particle; Detector

A Cryogenic Elementary-Particle Detector will be acquired by a consortium of institutions including Stanford University (principal institution), UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara. The instrumentation will be used primarily in the Stanford Underground Facility (SUF). The three Principal Investigators are Blas Cabrera, Professor of Physics at Stanford and Director of SUF; Bernard Sadoulet, Professor of Physics at UC Berkeley and Director of the NSF-funded Center for Particle Astrophysics (CfPA); and David Caldwell, Emeritus Professor at UC Santa Barbara. The Cabreras and Caldwell groups are supported by the DOE High Energy Physics program. This unique low temperature facility will be built to operate large-mass cryogenic particle detectors for research on dark matter and neutrino physics experiments, and for investigating industrial applications. Under the coordination of CfPA, the groups from these three institutions, along with research personnel from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), Santa Clara University and the Institute for Nuclear Research (INR) in Baksan, Russia are performing a search for the dark matter that makes up at least 90% of the mass of the universe. This problem is one of the most important in cosmology and science today and is the central theme of the CfPA. Our team is looking for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) such as supersymmetric particles, which may constitute this dark matter. We are expecting to improve the sensitivity of the previous searches by more than a hundred times within a few years using novel detectors which operate at very low temperature. By simultaneously measuring the ionization and lattice vibrations created by particle interactions within crystals, we obtain an unparalleled rejection tool against ubiquitous radioactive backgrounds which have limited previous experiments. The proposed instrument will be operated in the Stanford Underground Facility (SUF). It offers about one cubic foot of space at a temperature of 10mK and an ultra-low radioactive background environment.

低温基本粒子探测器将被包括斯坦福大学（主要机构），加州大学伯克利分校和加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校等机构收购。 该仪器将主要用于斯坦福地下设施（SUF）。 三位主要研究人员是斯坦福大学物理学教授兼SUF主任Blas Cabrera；加州大学伯克利分校物理学教授兼NSF资助的粒子天体物理学中心（CFPA）的伯纳德·萨杜莱特（Bernard Sadoulet）；加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校的名誉教授戴维·考德威尔（David Caldwell）。 Cabreras和Caldwell组得到了DOE High Energy Physics计划的支持。 这种独特的低温设施将建造用于操作大质量的低温颗粒探测器，以研究暗物质和中微子物理实验，并研究工业应用。在CFPA的协调下，这三个机构的群体以及劳伦斯·伯克利实验室（LBL），圣克拉拉大学和俄罗斯巴肯市的核研究所（INR）的研究人员正在搜索至少占宇宙群众90％的暗物质的搜索。 这个问题是当今宇宙学和科学中最重要的问题之一，也是CFPA的中心主题。 我们的团队正在寻找弱相互作用的巨大颗粒（WIMP），例如超对称颗粒，这可能构成这种暗物质。 我们希望使用在非常低温下运行的新型检测器在几年内将先前搜索的灵敏度提高超过一百倍。 通过同时测量晶体内粒子相互作用产生的电离和晶格振动，我们获得了一个无与伦比的拒绝工具，针对无处不在的放射性背景，该背景限制了先前的实验。 拟议的仪器将在斯坦福地下设施（SUF）中运行。 它在10MK的温度和超低放射性背景环境下提供约一立方英尺的空间。