EDELWEISS: Dark Matter Particles in a Crystal (Hannawald, Michael, DSM/Dapnia/Sedi, CEA Saylay, France)

by Dr Michael Hannawald (DSM/Dapnia/Sedi, CEA Saclay, France)

Thursday Feb 12, 2009, 3:30 PM → 5:00 PM Pacific/Honolulu

Rm 112 (UHM - Watanabe Hall)

The EDELWEISS experiment is a large scale international collaboration for the direct detection of dark matter particles (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle, WIMP) with bolometric detectors located at the underground laboratory of Modane (France). The main principal of the detection is that it is possible to scatter those particles in a germanium crystal elastically. During this interaction heat is deposited and atoms are ionized. EDELWEISS is looking for those rare signals where heat and ionization occur at the same time with specific values. I will focus on recent developments concerning the improvement of the sensitivity of the experiment and what efforts were made to reduce the residual natural radioactivity in order to eliminate disturbing events.