Physcial Sciences Division
Newsmakers

May 2018

PNNL scientists contribute to expanded hunt for WIMP dark matter

Several PNNL scientists are contributing to an expanded hunt for weakly interacting massive particles – WIMPs – in an experiment taking place in the deepest underground laboratory in North America.

PNNL scientists play an important role designing the SuperCDMS detector, helping to reduce as much as possible the background signals in the detector, which is designed to detect the postulated WIMP form of dark matter. PNNL is one of 26 institutions around the globe involved in SuperCDMS – it will be the world’s most sensitive experiment for relatively low-mass WIMPs, 50 times more sensitive than the previous CDMS experiment.

The work, now supported at PNNL by the DOE Office of High Energy Physics, is closely related to a broader program of physics research taking place through the Nuclear Physics, Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology Initiative (NPAC).

More information on SuperCDMS is available from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory (click here) or via the PNNL News Center.

PNNL scientists involved in SuperCDMS are Isaac Arnquist, Ray Bunker, Eric Hoppe, Ben Loer, John Orrell and Maria Laure di Vacri.