Speaker
Description
DEAP‑3600, with its 3.3‑tonne target and located at SNOLAB, currently represents the leading effort within the international community in the dark‑matter direct detection in liquid argon, while construction of the next‑generation experiment, DarkSide‑20k, is underway at LNGS in Italy. By analyzing approximately three years of data, DEAP‑3600 has recently released its most up-to-date exclusion limits on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), derived through a detailed Profile‑Likelihood Ratio analysis. These limits are strongly influenced by backgrounds originating from degraded alpha particles within the active argon target.
At the same time, the experiment’s large exposure and exceptionally low background levels at the MeV energy scale have enabled a broadened physics program, including the first experimental measurement of neutrino absorption in Argon‑40 using ⁸B electron neutrinos. Although never previously observed, this process is critical to the multi‑messenger astronomy and solar neutrino goals of both DUNE and DarkSide‑20k
Detector upgrades have been ongoing since the end of the second fill run in 2020, targeting the reduction of backgrounds from shadowed alphas and dust in the liquid. These improvements are now being evaluated in the newly initiated third fill run. We also present preliminary results from the analysis of the third‑fill data, which will inform both the effectiveness of the recent detector upgrades in suppressing backgrounds and the design of future noble‑liquid experiments.