124 research outputs found
Probing Majorana Neutrinos
Detecting neutrinoless double-beta decay would confirm that the neutrino is its own antiparticle. Data from the KamLAND-Zen experiment contain no strong evidence of such events, constraining neutrino properties
Direct Dark Matter Searches with CDMS and XENON
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) and XENON experiments aim to directly
detect dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs)
via their elastic scattering on the target nuclei. The experiments use
different techniques to suppress background event rates to the minimum, and at
the same time, to achieve a high WIMP detection rate. The operation of
cryogenic Ge and Si crystals of the CDMS-II experiment in the Soudan mine
yielded the most stringent spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross-section
(~10^{-43} cm^2) at a WIMP mass of 60 GeV/c^2. The two-phase xenon detector of
the XENON10 experiment is currently taking data in the Gran Sasso underground
lab and promising preliminary results were recently reported. Both experiments
are expected to increase their WIMP sensitivity by a one order of magnitude in
the scheduled science runs for 2007.Comment: appears in the proceedings of the 36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly in
Beijing, July 200
Cryogenic Dark Matter Searches
In the decades-old quest to uncover the nature of the enigmatic dark matter, cryogenic detectors have reached unprecedented sensitivities. Searching for tiny signals from dark matter particles scattering in materials cooled down to low temperatures, these experiments look out into space from deep underground. Their ambitious goal is to discover non-gravitational interactions of dark matter and to scan the allowed parameter space until interactions from solar and cosmic neutrinos are poised to take over
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