Update on the MiniCLEAN Dark Matter Experiment
Abstract
The direct search for dark matter is entering a period of increased sensitivity to the hypothetical Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP). One such technology that is being examined is a scintillation only noble liquid experiment, MiniCLEAN. MiniCLEAN utilizes over 500 kg of liquid cryogen to detect nuclear recoils from WIMP dark matter and serves as a demonstration for a future detector of order 50 to 100 tonnes. The liquid cryogen is interchangeable between argon and neon to study the A dependence of the potential signal and examine backgrounds. MiniCLEAN utilizes a unique modular design with spherical geometry to maximize the light yield using cold photomultiplier tubes in a single-phase detector. Pulse shape discrimination techniques are used to separate nuclear recoil signals from electron recoil backgrounds. MiniCLEAN will be spiked with additional Ar to demonstrate the effective reach of the pulse shape discrimination capability. Assembly of the experiment is underway at SNOLAB and an update on the project is given.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1403.4842,
title = {Update on the MiniCLEAN Dark Matter Experiment},
author = {K. Rielage and M. Akashi-Ronquest and M. Bodmer and R. Bourque and B. Buck and A. Butcher and T. Caldwell and Y. Chen and K. Coakley and E. Flores and J. A. Formaggio and D. Gastler and F. Giuliani and M. Gold and E. Grace and J. Griego and N. Guerrero and V. Guiseppe and R. Henning and A. Hime and S. Jaditz and C. Kachulis and E. Kearns and J. Kelsey and J. R. Klein and A. Latorre and I. Lawson and S. Linden and F. Lopez and D. N. McKinsey and S. MacMullin and A. Mastbaum and D. -M. Mei and J. Monroe and J. A. Nikkel and J. Oertel and G. D. Orebi Gann and K. Palladino and G. Perumpilly and L. Rodriguez and R. Schnee and S. Seibert and J. Walding and B. Wang and J. Wang and C. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1403.4842},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
To appear in the Proceedings of the TAUP 2013 Conference (F. Avignone & W. Haxton, editors, Physics Procedia, Elsevier)