Our own research faculty member, Dr. Rob Calkins, will continue the Spring 2022 Department Speaker Series with a lecture entitled “New results for dark matter through inelastic scattering channels at SuperCDMS.” Please find more information below!
Despite the abundance of evidence for dark matter in the universe, direct detector experiments have not observed evidence of particle dark matter within their sensitivity reach. These experiments typically search for low energy nuclear recoils induced by interactions with dark matter, with low mass sensitivity driven by detector threshold. New ideas are required to advance these searches. One that has recently emerged has been to utilize inelastic scattering channels to search for dark matter. These scattering channels predict the emission of photons or electrons in addition to a recoiling nucleus, which can boost the expected deposited energy signal about detection thresholds at the expense of reduced interaction rate, boosting sensitivity to new, lower mass regimes for dark matter. In this talk, I will present results from a search using data collected with the SuperCDMS-Soudan experiment that is world leading for dark matter masses below 10% of the proton’s mass.
Snacks are served in FOSC 16 (The Hyer Ed Cafe) beginning at 3:45 and the talk begins promptly at 4:00pm in FOSC 123. All are welcome!
