The SuperCDMS Operations Program

The nature of dark matter, which makes up nearly 27% of the mass-energy content of the Universe, is one of the most fundamental questions of modern science. The weakly interacting massive particle, or WIMP, is a favored dark matter candidate sought in searches at the Large Hadron Collider accelerator in Switzerland, indirect detection experiments, and direct detection experiments that look for WIMP interactions with nucleons in ultra-sensitive particle detectors. The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment is a direct detection dark matter search that looks for WIMPs of lower mass with world-leading sensitivity, complementing the on-going global efforts. This award supports the base operations of the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment as it commences the first science data-taking of the completed detector. The program includes development of accessible analysis resources that will enhance training opportunities for training of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. In addition, computational skills will be incorporated into a diverse outreach effort through short course modules, research projects, and planned workshops. The goal of the SuperCDMS project is to directly detect galactic dark matter and thus address the particle nature of dark matter, its astrophysical properties, and how it relates to the Standard Model of particle physics. The construction of the SuperCDMS detector is reaching completion in preparation for installation and integration at the deep underground SNOLAB sited in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The team will operate advanced cryogenic detectors that have unprecedented sensitivity to dark matter particles with masses at and below the GeV/c-squared mass scale. The advanced cryogenic detectors will provide unprecedented sensitivity to lower mass dark matter particles, with ultimate potential sensitivity to the dark matter-nucleon cross-section where solar neutrino-nucleus scattering becomes significant. Extending beyond the search for dark matter, the experiment’s phonon-mediated detectors have applications in cosmology, astronomy and industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.