Speaker
Federica Petricca
(MPP)
Description
The CRESST cryogenic direct Dark Matter search is located in the Gran Sasso underground laboratories. CaWO4 crystals have been used as scintillating targets for WIMP interactions. Each crystal is operated as a cryogenic calorimeter in combination with a second cryogenic detector used to measure the scintillation light produced in the target crystal. For each particle interaction, the combination of phonon and light signals enables an event by event discrimination allowing an effective separation of nuclear recoils from electron-photon backgrounds. Furthermore, information from studies on the light yield of different nuclear recoils allows the definition of a region of the energy-light yield plane which corresponds to tungsten recoils. We present an overview of the experiment, with special focus on the high potential of the discrimination technique proven in a successful commissioning run in 2007. Since then CRESST has been further investigating the possibilities for a better suppression of background sources and is currently collecting data. We shortly present the status of the experiment and the perspectives of the ongoing run.
Author
Federica Petricca
(MPP)