Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics (INPA) at LBNL
The INPA Seminar weekly talks are on Fridays, starting at 12:00 pm, unless informed otherwise. The seminar talk starts with a brief presentation of the weekly scientific news. Typically, the talks conclude by 1:00 pm. The seminars are held in the Sessler Conference Room, located in Bldg. 50A- 5132.
The committee members are:
The seminar schedule for the Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics (INPA) is tentative and becomes final a few days before the Friday talk.
Please send all suggestions for future INPA talks and speakers to the INPA Committee.
To be added to the INPA News Mailing List, please contact Erica Hall.
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Quentin Riffard – Direct detection of dark matter with the DarkSide program
March 13, 2017 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
A large number of astrophysical and cosmological observations at different scales supports the existence of a cold dark matter component in the Universe. At the Universe scale, this component is uniformly distributed and represents roughly 26% of the total mass-energy density of the Universe. The Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP), a generic particle, is one of the leading dark matter particle candidates: a massive particle interacting only through weak and gravitational interactions. This candidate is supported by the so-called “WIMP miracle” and could also be supported in particle physics by supersymmetric models. At the Milky Way scale, dark matter forms a static halo surrounding our galaxy. The relative motion of the solar system through the dark halo produces a flux of WIMP on Earth. Through the weak interaction, WIMP could interact with ordinary matter producing nuclear recoils (NR) by elastic scattering. In the last two decades, a large experimental effort has been deployed by international collaborations in order to probe a direct detection of NR from WIMP-nucleus interactions. In this experimental context, multi-tone noble liquid TPC are good candidate for the dark matter searches. The DarkSide program is a step approach program aiming to build a large TPC filled with liquid argon (LAr). The first part of this presentation focuses on the potential of LAr as a target for dark matter searches, on the latest results from the DS-50 detector and the perspectives of the DarkSide program: the DS-20k detector. For a complete understanding of LAr data, the characterisation of several parameters is fundamental such as the scintillation efficiency for NR and the pulse-shape parameter for the NR/ER discrimination is fundamental. In order to improve the knowledge on these parameters, the ARIS collaboration built a small LAr double-phase TPC. A first data taking with mono chromatic neutrons was performed in Orsay (France) in last October. The second part of this presentation presents a status of the ARIS data analysis and a discussion of the strategy to extract the parameters.
INPA guests from campus can now come to the lab early on Fridays. The INPA Common Room (50-5026) is reserved for our guests from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Note that the seminars are now held in 50A-5132 to accommodate a more significant number of attendees.
CPTea Series (also known as INPA Tea Series)
The Physics Division CPTea Series invites you to an In-Person Tea Series 1st Friday of every month at 3:30 pm INPA Conference Room 50-5026.
Everyone is welcome to attend the open forum. Tea and light refreshments will be served.
INPA Common Room (50-5026)
Fridays
3:30 pm
Access to the Lab
For a shuttle pass, please email Erica Hall. The pass is only valid for the day of the seminar.