Speaker
Jean-Come Lanfranchi
(TUM)
Description
CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) is an experiment aimed at the direct detection of dark matter. The experiment uses scintillating CaWO4 single crystals operated at mK-temperatures to measure the recoil energy deposited by elastic WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle) nucleon scattering. By recording the heat as well as the associated scintillation light generated by an energy deposition in the crystal, CRESST is able to achieve a unique discrimination on an event-by-event level. In the data taking run from 2009 to 2011 (Run32) comprising 730kg-days of exposure a total of 67 events in the region of interest passed all cuts and were difficult to explain with contributions from common backgrounds such as alpha-, beta-, gamma-radiation or neutrons. However, the excess might be explainable by a light WIMP of the 10 GeV type or by a still unconsidered form of background. A new data taking campaign (Run33) has started in 2013 aiming at clarifying the above mentioned experimental situation. In this talk Jean will discuss the experimental details and the status of the experiment. Finally an outlook will be given towards the future EURECA (European Underground Rare Event Calorimeter Array) experiment aimed at unifying the low-temperature experiments CRESST, EDELWEISS and possibly also the US based SuperCDMS in one setup.