Cryogenic Observatory for Signatures Seen in Next-Generation Underground Searches

Last updated

The Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next-generation Underground Searches (COSINUS) is a scientific collaboration aimed at developing cryogenic detectors for the direct detection of dark matter, particularly in relation to results observed by other experiments like DAMA/LIBRA. [1] The goal of COSINUS is to confirm or refute these results by using different detection techniques while maintaining high sensitivity to dark matter interactions. [2]

The participating institutes in the COSINUS collaboration include the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Germany), the Gran Sasso Science Institute (Italy), the Helsinki Institute of Physics (Finland), the Institute of High Energy Physics (Austria), the Technical University of Vienna (Austria), the University of L'Aquila (Italy), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), and the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (China). [3] The experiment is conducted in the underground laboratory of the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy, which provides the necessary shielding from cosmic radiation and environmental interference for the detection of rare dark matter interactions. [4]

Similar to CRESST, COSINUS utilizes cryogenic detectors that operate at temperatures of a few millikelvin to achieve high energy resolution. The detectors are designed to measure both phonon (heat) and photon (light) signals, using scintillating sodium iodide (NaI) crystals, to discriminate between dark matter signals and background noise. [5] [6]

COSINUS was inaugurated in Spring 2024 and will start recording data in early 2025. [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

The DAMA/NaI experiment investigated the presence of dark matter particles in the galactic halo by exploiting the model-independent annual modulation signature. Based on the Earth's orbit around the Sun and the solar system's speed with respect to the center of the galaxy, the Earth should be exposed to a higher flux of dark matter particles around June 1, when its orbital speed is added to the one of the solar system with respect to the galaxy and to a smaller one around December 2, when the two velocities are subtracted. The annual modulation signature is distinctive since the effect induced by dark matter particles must simultaneously satisfy many requirements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neutrinoless double beta decay</span> A nuclear physics process that has yet to observed

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) is a commonly proposed and experimentally pursued theoretical radioactive decay process that would prove a Majorana nature of the neutrino particle. To this day, it has not been found.

The Max Planck Institute for Physics (MPP) is a research institute located in Garching, near Munich, Germany. It specializes in high energy physics and astroparticle physics. The MPP is part of the Max Planck Society and is also known as the Werner Heisenberg Institute, after its first director in its current location.

The XENON dark matter research project, operated at the Italian Gran Sasso National Laboratory, is a deep underground detector facility featuring increasingly ambitious experiments aiming to detect hypothetical dark matter particles. The experiments aim to detect particles in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by looking for rare nuclear recoil interactions in a liquid xenon target chamber. The current detector consists of a dual phase time projection chamber (TPC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso</span> Physics laboratory in Assergi, Italy

Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is the largest underground research center in the world. Situated below Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, it is well known for particle physics research by the INFN. In addition to a surface portion of the laboratory, there are extensive underground facilities beneath the mountain. The nearest towns are L'Aquila and Teramo. The facility is located about 120 km from Rome.

The ArDM Experiment was a particle physics experiment based on a liquid argon detector, aiming at measuring signals from WIMPs, which may constitute the Dark Matter in the universe. Elastic scattering of WIMPs from argon nuclei is measurable by observing free electrons from ionization and photons from scintillation, which are produced by the recoiling nucleus interacting with neighbouring atoms. The ionization and scintillation signals can be measured with dedicated readout techniques, which constituted a fundamental part of the detector.

Astroparticle physics, also called particle astrophysics, is a branch of particle physics that studies elementary particles of astrophysical origin and their relation to astrophysics and cosmology. It is a relatively new field of research emerging at the intersection of particle physics, astronomy, astrophysics, detector physics, relativity, solid state physics, and cosmology. Partly motivated by the discovery of neutrino oscillation, the field has undergone rapid development, both theoretically and experimentally, since the early 2000s.

Susan C. Cooper was professor of experimental physics at Oxford University from 1995 to 2015, and a professorial fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers</span>

The Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST) is a collaboration of European experimental particle physics groups involved in the construction of cryogenic detectors for direct dark matter searches. The participating institutes are the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Munich), Technical University of Munich, University of Tübingen (Germany), University of Oxford, the Comenius University Bratislava (Slovakia) and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare.

The DAMA/LIBRA experiment is a particle detector experiment designed to detect dark matter using the direct detection approach, by using a matrix of NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors to detect dark matter particles in the galactic halo. The experiment aims to find an annual modulation of the number of detection events, caused by the variation of the velocity of the detector relative to the dark matter halo as the Earth orbits the Sun. It is located underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borexino</span> Neutrino physics experiment in Italy

Borexino is a deep underground particle physics experiment to study low energy (sub-MeV) solar neutrinos. The detector is the world's most radio-pure liquid scintillator calorimeter and is protected by 3,800 meters of water-equivalent depth. The scintillator is pseudocumene and PPO which is held in place by a thin nylon sphere. It is placed within a stainless steel sphere which holds the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) used as signal detectors and is shielded by a water tank to protect it against external radiation. Outward pointing PMT's look for any outward facing light flashes to tag incoming cosmic muons that manage to penetrate the overburden of the mountain above. Neutrino energy can be determined through the number of photoelectrons measured in the PMT's. While the position can be determined by extrapolating the difference in arrival times of photons at PMT's throughout the chamber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Underground Rare Event Calorimeter Array</span> Planned dark matter search experiment

The European Underground Rare Event Calorimeter Array (EURECA) is a planned dark matter search experiment using cryogenic detectors and an absorber mass of up to 1 tonne. The project will be built in the Modane Underground Laboratory and will bring together researchers working on the CRESST and EDELWEISS experiments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefan Janos (physicist)</span>

Stefan Janos is a Slovak-Swiss university physicist and professor, founder of very low temperature physics in Slovakia.

The DarkSide collaboration is an international affiliation of universities and labs seeking to directly detect dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The collaboration is planning, building and operating a series of liquid argon time projection chambers (TPCs) that are employed at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Assergi, Italy. The detectors are filled with liquid argon from underground sources in order to exclude the radioactive isotope 39
Ar, which makes up one in every 1015 (quadrillion) atoms in atmospheric argon. The Darkside-10 (DS-10) prototype was tested in 2012, and the Darkside-50 (DS-50) experiment has been operating since 2013. Darkside-20k (DS-20k) with 20 tonnes of liquid argon is being planned as of 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CUORE</span> Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) – also cuore (Italian for 'heart'; ) – is a particle physics facility located underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Assergi, Italy. CUORE was designed primarily as a search for neutrinoless double beta decay in 130Te, a process that has never been observed. It uses tellurium dioxide (TeO2) crystals as both the source of the decay and as bolometers to detect the resulting electrons. CUORE searches for the characteristic signal of neutrinoless double beta decay, a small peak in the observed energy spectrum around the known decay energy; for 130Te, this is Q = 2527.518 ± 0.013 keV. CUORE can also search for signals from dark matter candidates, such as axions and WIMPs.

The Particle and Astrophysical Xenon Detector, or PandaX, is a dark matter detection experiment at China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) in Sichuan, China. The experiment occupies the deepest underground laboratory in the world, and is among the largest of its kind.

XMASS is a multipurpose physics experiment in Japan. It is a large cryogenic storage dewar, a tank of liquid xenon equipped with photosensors monitoring flashes of light that might be caused by interactions with hypothetical dark matter particles. Unlike a cryogenic particle detector, it operates at temperatures relatively far from absolute zero. In addition to searching for dark matter, XMASS is also studying neutrinoless double beta decay and solar neutrinos. The project is conducted by a team at Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo.

Ettore Fiorini was an Italian experimental particle physicist. He studied the physics of the weak interaction and was a pioneer in the field of double beta decay. He served as a professor of nuclear and subnuclear physics at the University of Milano-Bicocca.

Luisa Cifarelli FInstP is a Professor of Experimental Particle Physics at the University of Bologna. She is the Director of the La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento.

Direct detection of dark matter is the science of attempting to directly measure dark matter collisions in Earth-based experiments. Modern astrophysical measurements, such as from the Cosmic Microwave Background, strongly indicate that 85% of the matter content of the universe is unaccounted for. Although the existence of dark matter is widely believed, what form it takes or its precise properties has never been determined. There are three main avenues of research to detect dark matter: attempts to make dark matter in accelerators, indirect detection of dark matter annihilation, and direct detection of dark matter in terrestrial labs. The founding principle of direct dark matter detection is that since dark matter is known to exist in the local universe, as the Earth, Solar System, and the Milky Way Galaxy carve out a path through the universe they must intercept dark matter, regardless of what form it takes.

References

  1. ↑ Angloher, G.; Carniti, P.; Cassina, L.; Gironi, L.; Gotti, C.; Gütlein, A.; Maino, M.; Mancuso, M.; Pagnanini, L.; Pessina, G.; Petricca, F.; Pirro, S.; Pröbst, F.; Puig, R.; Reindl, F. (2017-11-08). "Results from the first cryogenic NaI detector for the COSINUS project". Journal of Instrumentation. 12 (11): P11007. arXiv: 1705.11028 . Bibcode:2017JInst..12P1007A. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/12/11/P11007. ISSN   1748-0221.
  2. ↑ "COSINUS – Official website of the COSINUS experiment" . Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  3. ↑ "Collaboration – COSINUS" . Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  4. ↑ Paris, Mattia. "Cosinus". Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  5. ↑ Angloher, G.; Carniti, P.; Cassina, L.; Gironi, L.; Gotti, C.; Gütlein, A.; Hauff, D.; Maino, M.; Nagorny, S. S.; Pagnanini, L.; Pessina, G.; Petricca, F.; Pirro, S.; Pröbst, F.; Reindl, F. (2016-08-08). "The COSINUS project: perspectives of a NaI scintillating calorimeter for dark matter search". The European Physical Journal C. 76 (8): 441. arXiv: 1603.02214 . Bibcode:2016EPJC...76..441A. doi: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4278-3 . ISSN   1434-6052.
  6. ↑ Stahlberg, M.; Angloher, G.; Bharadwaj, M. R.; Cababie, M. R.; Dafinei, I.; Di Marco, N.; Einfalt, L.; Ferroni, F.; Fichtinger, S.; Filipponi, A.; Frank, T.; Friedl, M.; Fuss, A.; Ge, Z.; Heikinheimo, M. (2024-09-12). "COSINUS:TES-instrumented NaI Crystals for Direct Dark Matter Search". Journal of Low Temperature Physics. 217 (3–4): 350–357. Bibcode:2024JLTP..217..350S. doi: 10.1007/s10909-024-03185-z . ISSN   1573-7357.
  7. ↑ "New experiment tests controversial dark matter signals". www.mpp.mpg.de. 2024-04-17. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  8. ↑ varaschin (2024-04-18). "AT LNGS THE INAUGURATION OF COSINUS PROJECT". home.infn.it. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.