The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) is an experiment seeking to detect relic weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a leading dark matter candidate, directly in a laboratory via elastic scattering on nuclei.
The experiment consists of an array of ultrapure 600g germanium crystals, capable of reading ionization and phonon signals from particle interactions. Careful use of multiple readout channels provides excellent discrimination of WIMP interactions from all electromagnetic backgrounds. A 10kg experimental array is currently being operated in the Soudan Underground Laboratory in northern Minnesota, and a 200kg array is now being developed for installation at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Ontario.
MIT Kavli Institute members working on this experiment are Enectali Figueroa-Feliciano, Adam Anderson, Julian Billard, Alexander Leder, and Kevin McCarthy.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.