Physics

Current and future dark matter searches within the DarkSide program

by Dr Paolo Agnes (Royal Holloway University of London, from 1st September RTDb at GSSI)

Europe/Rome
Ex-ISEF/Building-Main Lecture Hall (GSSI)

Ex-ISEF/Building-Main Lecture Hall

GSSI

20
Description

The Darkside program aims at performing the most sensitive search for 0.1 - 1000 TeV dark matter (DM) of the next decade. Towards this goal, DarkSide-20k will use a 50 tonne dual-phase detector, filled with argon extracted from underground, exploiting its exceptional background rejection capability. One of the main novelty of the experiment is the light readout system, based on large arrays of Silicon photomultipliers, developed by the collaboration and enabling the detection of the argon scintillation light with higher efficiency compared to traditional photo-multipliers. The physics reach of DarkSide extends beyond the high-mass dark matter search: on one hand, building on the experience from its predecessor DarkSide-50, which reports the world leading constraints for sub-GeV dark matter candidates; on the other hand, thanks to the deployment of such a large quantity of specialized silicon detectors, which offers the opportunity for additional and novel applications. In this presentation I will cover the most recent results of the DarkSide-50 experiment, relevant for the future of the programme, and discuss the current status and the future of the DarkSide program.