Speaker
Description
The DarkSide program already produced world-class results for
both the low mass ($M_{WIMP}<10GeV/c^2$) and high mass
($M_{WIMP}>100GeV/c^2$) direct detection search for dark matter
with its primary DarkSide-50 detector. Operating since late 2013, it is a
50-kg-active-mass dual-phase Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber
(TPC), filled with low radioactivity argon from an underground source.
The next step of DarkSide program consists of a new generation experiment
involving collaboration within Global Argon Program for Dark Matter that
engages all the current Argon-based experiments. DarkSide-20k is
designed as a 20-tonne fiducial mass dual-phase Liquid Argon TPC
with SiPM based cryogenic photosensors with high detection
efficiency. TPC will be installed inside a cryostat containing more than
700 t of liquid argon and be surrounded by an active neutron veto.
The detector will be housed at the INFN Gran Sasso (LNGS)
underground laboratory, just like his predecessor, and should be free
of any instrumental background for exposure of >100 tonne x year.
DarkSide-20k is expected to attain a WIMP-nucleon cross-section
exclusion sensitivity of $7.4\times 10^{-48}\, cm^2$ for a WIMP
mass of $1TeV/c^2$ in a 200 t yr run. The talk will highlight the
latest updates on the ongoing R\&D activities toward large-scale argon
detectors and their capabilities.
