By correlating nuclear recoil directions with the Earth's direction of motion through the Galaxy, a directional dark matter detector can unambiguously detect Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), even in the presence of backgrounds. Here, we describe the Dark Matter Time-Projection Chamber (DMTPC) detector, a TPC filled with CF4 gas at low pressure (0.1 atm). Using this detector, we have measured the vector direction (head-tail) of nuclear recoils down to energies of 100 keV with an angular resolution of <15 degrees. To study our detector backgrounds, we have operated in a basement laboratory on the MIT campus for several months. We are currently building a new, high-radiopurity detector for deployment underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant facility in New Mexico.
@article{arxiv.0907.0675,
title = {DMTPC: A dark matter detector with directional sensitivity},
author = {J. B. R. Battat and S. Ahlen and T. Caldwell and D. Dujmic and A. Dushkin and P. Fisher and F. Golub and S. Goyal and S. Henderson and A. Inglis and R. Lanza and J. Lopez and A. Kaboth and G. Kohse and J. Monroe and G. Sciolla and B. N. Skvorodnev and H. Tomita and R. Vanderspek and H. Wellenstein and R. Yamamoto},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0907.0675},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings for the CIPANP 2009 conference, May 26-31, 2009