A Proposal to Operate the COUPP-60 Bubble Chamber at SNOLAB

[摘要] Bubble chambers are promising devices for the detection of WIMP dark matter, due to their easy scalability to large target masses and insensitivity to background {gamma} and {beta} radiation. The COUPP collaboration has constructed small chambers which have achieved competitive sensitivity for spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon scattering. A new chamber, COUPP-60, containing 60-kg of CF{sub 3}I target liquid, has been built and is being commissioned at Fermilab. We propose to move this detector to SNOLAB after completing tests in a shallow underground site at Fermilab. At SNOLAB, we expect the sensitivity of the experiment to be determined by the level of {alpha}emitting contamination in the target liquid. If we achieve state-of-the-art levels of {alpha} emitting contamination, we will improve current sensitivity by approximately four orders of magnitude beyond our published limits, to the region of 10{sup -4} pb for a 30 GeV WIMP interacting by spin-dependent couplings to the proton. This will allow a first exploration of the phase space favored by supersymmetric models in this regime.

[发布日期] 2009-08-01

[学科分类] 核物理和高能物理

[关键词] BUBBLE CHAMBERS;EXPERIMENT PLANNING;DETECTION;NONLUMINOUS MATTER;PHASE SPACE;CARBON FLUORIDES;SENSITIVITY;SUPERSYMMETRY;MATHEMATICAL MODELS Accelerators