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VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events
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SEQUENCE:0
UID:UW-Physics-Event-3247
DTSTART:20140204T220000Z
DURATION:PT1H0M0S
DTSTAMP:20260419T193320Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20140121T163919Z
LOCATION:Chamberlin Hall 4274
SUMMARY:Searching for dark matter with bubble chambers\, Faculty Candi
 date Seminar\, Hugh Lippincott
DESCRIPTION:The PICO Collaboration (formed from the recent merger of t
 he Chicago-based COUPP and the Canadian-based PICASSO experiments) use
 s bubble chambers to search for dark matter particles. Unlike the bubb
 le chambers of the 1960s and 1970s\, PICO chambers are operated in onl
 y mildly superheated conditions\, rendering them insensitive to the mi
 nimum ionizing particles that typically constitute the largest backgro
 und in dark matter searches. The bubble chamber allows for rejection o
 f other backgrounds as well - for example\, alpha decays can be discri
 minated from signal events because they sound louder. The result is a 
 detector with minimal backgrounds that can be scaled to large masses. 
 I will introduce the field of direct detection of dark matter and disc
 uss the status of PICO\, including results from the COUPP-4 detector a
 nd a progress report on COUPP-60 and PICO-2L\, two chambers recently c
 ommissioned in the deep underground site of SNOLAB.
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=3247
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