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[29.06.2023] DARWIN and its Science Potential at LowRad Symposium

More than 60 scientists from the fields of direct dark matter detection, neutrinoless double beta decay, neutrino mass measurements and related fields gathered at the University of Münster for the "Low Radon in Dark Matter and Neutrino Experiments" (LowRad) symposium. As radon is one of the limiting background for all these searches, the symposium t brought together experts on this topic from the various fields to discuss radon-induced backgrounds and corresponding mitigation strategies.

DARWIN, XENON, LZ and the joint project XLZD were well represented at the meeting.

      

[28.06.2023] Cosmogenic background simulations for the DARWIN observatory at different underground locations

Xenon dual-phase time projections chambers (TPCs) have proven to be a successful technology in studying physical phenomena that require low-background conditions. With 40t of liquid xenon (LXe) in its TPC, DARWIN will have a high sensitivity for the detection of particle dark matter, neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), and axion-like particles (ALPs). Although cosmic muons are a source of background that cannot be entirely eliminated, they may be greatly diminished by placing the detector deep underground.

In this newly published study, we used Monte Carlo simulations to model the cosmogenic background expected for the DARWIN observatory at four underground laboratories: Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS), Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF), Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) and SNOLAB. We determine the production rates of unstable xenon isotopes and tritium due to muon-included neutron fluxes and muon-induced spallation. These are expected to represent the dominant contributions to cosmogenic backgrounds and thus the most relevant for site selection. The most important results of the study is that cosmogenically produced Xe127, which falls right in the region of interest for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Xe136, is well below the background level from irreducible 8B neutrinos for all sites.

Publication:
M. Androver et al. (DARWIN Collaboration), Cosmogenic background simulations for the DARWIN observatory at different underground locations, arXiv:2306.16340.

[07.06.2023] DARWIN at XeSat in Nantes

The 6th "International Workshop on Application of Noble Gas Xenon to Science and Technology" (XeSAT2023) took place June 5-8 2023 at the SUBATECH laboratory in Nantes, France, hosted by the IMT Atlantique. It brought together physicists, chemists, and engineers to discuss the advances in liquid noble gas technology and their applications in various fields. The DARWIN project was presented by Prof. Ranny Budik (Weizmann Institute). His slides on DARWIN can be found here. And here are the slides by our colleague Alex Lindote on the XLZD project.

[26.05.2023] Grant from NextGenerationEU for Italian DARWIN groups

DARWIN members Physicists Dr. Carla Macolino from the University of L'Aquila and Dr. Marco Selvi from the INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) division of Bologna have received one of the coveted PRIN (Progetti di Ricerca di Interesse Nazionale) Grants awarded by the Italian Ministry of Research and University (MUR). The 2-year grant, consisting of about 230 kEuros, will finance the development of new technologies for the next-generation xenon TPC for direct detection of dark matter, focusing on the realization of improved TPC electrodes and the neutron veto and will fund PhD students and post-docs aiming at an academic career.

      

[15.05.2023] DARWIN Collaboration Meeting in Heidelberg

More than 60 DARWIN scientists (and even more joining remotely) gathered at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) for three days of discussions and presentations. The collaboration continues to grow and lot's of R&D is ongoing at the various institutions.

      

[05.04.2023] Successful XLZD Meeting at UCLA

Members of the DARWIN and LZ collaborations had a very successful meeting at ULCA (Los Angeles) to discuss how to move forward with the project coherently and quickly. The scientific part was accompanied by a very nice social program, brining together the two collaborations.

      

[01.02.2023] Upcoming meeting of XLZD consortium in Los Angeles

Members of the DARWIN/XENON and LZ collaborations will come together at UCLA in Los Angeles on April 2-4, 2023 to discuss the status of the joint project and the achievements so far.

      

[05.09.2022] Reduction of radon backgrounds in a hermetic TPC

The DARWIN group at the University of Freiburg built and operated a small detector prototype to test the possibility to reduce the background from 222Rn, the dominant background source in current LXe-based dark matter searches, by a novel detector design which mechanically separates the dark matter target from the detector regions which emanate more 222Rn. By scaling up the result to the multi-ton scale of DARWIN, the team could show that such hermetic detector design is very promising, even if full hermeticity cannot be achieved.

Publication:
J. Dierle et al., Reduction of 222Rn-induced Backgrounds in a Hermetic Dual-Phase Xenon Time Projection Chamber,
Eur. Phys. J C 83, 9 (2023), arXiv:2209.00362.

[01.07.2022] XLZD: Joining forces towards a next-generation Dark Matter experiment

Scientists from the leading dark matter experiments came together this week at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, joining forces to design and build a future dark matter detector within the newly established XLZD consortium. The XENON and LUX-ZEPLIN collaborations currently each operate some of the most sensitive experiments ever built to detect rare particle interactions, such as those expected from dark matter or neutrinos. The DARWIN collaboration, uniting XENON and new members, is planning a next-generation observatory for rare-event searches based on the liquid-xenon technique. This week, these collaborations came together to jointly work on the next-generation experiment, which is expected to take data later in this decade.

      

At the meeting in Karlsruhe, the scientists discussed how this experiment can be realized together. The project is expected to make dramatic advances for our understanding of dark matter, the dominant form of matter in the universe. The same experiment will also advance our understanding of how our Sun creates its energy through the study of neutrinos that directly come from the core of our star. Further discoveries may be made through the study of rare nuclear decays. "I am thrilled about the enormous potential of this detector" says DARWIN spokesperson Prof. Laura Baudis from the University of Zurich. "With one experiment, we will simultaneously learn about dark matter, neutrinos, our Sun, nuclear physics, particle physics, and even cosmology". Prof. Hugh Lippincott from the University of Santa Barbara and LZ spokesperson added: "Here we have the best teams in the search for dark matter joining forces, to get to the bottom of this cosmic riddle. We are motivated to do the science, and this meeting has made it clear that we also have the necessary expertise to build this observatory in the coming years."

A recent whitepaper outlining the science case was signed by over 600 scientists from 150 institutions in 28 countries, underlining the international scope and support of the project. "We had signed a Memorandum of Understanding already in 2021", says Prof. Kathrin Valerius from KIT, "and this meeting was a great success. It allowed us to further solidify our joint scientific work that we had so far only been able to do remotely over the past year."

[01.06.2022] Three new groups join DARWIN

We are happy to announce that the theory groups of Prof. Martin Hoferichter (Bern, Switzerland), Prof. Javier Menendez (Barcelona, Spain) Prof. Achim Schwenk (Darmstadt, Germany) strengthen the DARWIN collaboration.

[27.04.2022] ERC Advanced Grant for DARWIN PI Christian Weinheimer

Christian Weinheimer (University of Münster, Germany) receives an Advanced Grant from the EU Research Council. The grant for the project "LowRad" will allow Christian and his team to significantly improve the reduction of radioactive contaminants in the liquid xenon and, at the same time, to develop new diagnostic methods for detecting extremely small traces of radioactivity. The planned research also includes work in the field of neutrino physics. Congratulations Christian!

      

This new award "LowRad" to Christian Weinheimer is already the third ERC grant with a direct connection to DARWIN, following the projects "Xenoscope" (PI Baudis, Zurich) and "ULTIMATE" (PI Schumann, Freiburg).

Read the press release.

[14.04.2022] Charpak-Ritz Prize 2022 awarded to DARWIN spokesperson Laura Baudis

Laura Baudis is awarded with the 2022 Charpak-Ritz Price jointly given by the French and the Swiss Physical Society for her leadership in international astro-particle physics collaborations, outreach activities and seminal contributions to dark matter research. Congratulation Laura!

Read the press release.

      

[10.04.2022] Upcoming Workshop of the DARWIN/XENON and LZ collaborations at KIT

The first in-person workshop of the DARWIN/XENON and LZ collaborations will take place at the premises of our DARWIN colleagues at KIT Karlsruhe from June 27-29. We are excited to meet each other in person!

            

[27.03.2022] GPU-based optical simulation of the DARWIN detector

Understanding propagation of scintillation light is critical for maximizing the discovery potential of next-generation liquid xenon TPCs. This new paper, led by the DARWIN group in Alabama, describes a detailed optical simulation of the DARWIN detector implemented using Chroma, a GPU-based photon tracking framework. Several variations of the DARWIN baseline design are simulated to evaluate the framework and to explore ways of maximizing efficiency and minimizing the time of light collection. The approach used in this work allows one to investigate detector designs faster and in more detail than using conventional Geant4 optical simulations, making it an attractive tool to guide the development of the ultimate liquid xenon observatory. The publication can be found here.

[10.03.2022] A new continent on the DARWIN world map

We are pleased to announce that two groups from the University of Melbourne join DARWIN's endeavour to realize a multi-ton scale observatory for astroparticle physics . Welcome to the PIs Elisabetta Barberio and Nicole Bell and their teams!

      

[04.03.2022] A Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics

With 77 pages, 40 figures, 1262 references and almost 600 authors (from DARWIN, LZ, XENON plus others), this whitepaper on the next-generation liquid-xenon-based observatory for dark matter and neutrino physics (e.g., DARWIN) covers essentially everything you need to know about these detectors. In particular, it shows that a plethora of science channels beyond its main goal of "detecting WIMP dark matter" can also be explore. The whitepaper can be found here.

[23.12.2021] New analysis options in a single-phase TPC

In standard liquid xenon (LXe) dual-phase TPCs, the charge signal from the ionization electrons is converted to proportional scintillation light in a narrow region of xenon gas right above the LXe phase. Signal generation by proportional scintillation in the liquid xenon phase in a single-phase TPC could avoid all problems related to the liquid-gas interface and the precise gas gap required in a dual-phase TPC.

      

A new paper from the DARWIN group in Freiburg studies the impact on charge signal analysis in a single-phase detector of DARWIN dimensions, where the fast timing of the proportional scintillation signal created in the LXe allows for the precise identification of the single electrons in the ionisation signal. Such a discrete electron-counting approach leads to a better signal resolution at low energies and the absence of the liquid-gas interface benefits the S2-only energy resolution significantly. Exploiting the precise electron time information further allows for a powerful discrimination of single vs. multiple site interactions. The paper can be found here.

[30.08.2021] DARWIN presented @ TAUP 2021

TAUP (Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics) is one of the most important international conferences for low-background physics and rare event searches. Due to the pandemic it was held online-only this year. DARWIN was presented by Teresa Marrodan Undagiotia (MPIK). You can watch her presentation on YouTube.

[20.07.2021] DARWIN and LZ join forces to build next-generation Dark Matter Detector

The XENON/DARWIN and LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) collaborations have now joined forces to work together on the design, construction, and operation of a new, single, multi-tonne scale xenon observatory to explore dark matter. The detector will be highly sensitive to a wide range of proposed dark matter particles and their interactions with visible matter. Over the last 20+ years, experiments using liquefied xenon targets have delivered world-leading results in the global quest for direct dark matter detection. This next-generation detector aims to continue the pursuit.

Dark matter makes up 85% of the matter in the Universe, but its nature remains a mystery. The direct identification of the dark matter particle is amongst the highest priorities in science and also one of the most challenging. The primary science goal of the new joint observatory is to reach a sensitivity for detecting dark matter in our galaxy by at least a factor of 10 beyond that of the current generation of detectors.

Laura Baudis from the University of Zurich and spokesperson of DARWIN says: "Xenon-based detectors are by far the most mature technology to detect dark matter in the upcoming years if nature decided to put it in reach of any direct detection instrument."

The current xenon-based experiments XENONnT and LUX-ZEPLIN will start their first science runs in 2021, to lead the race to detect the first signs of new particles and interactions. These experiments employ 5.9 and 7.0 tonnes of liquid xenon for the search, respectively. The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment operates at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in the USA. The XENONnT experiment is located at the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy. DARWIN is the evolution of the XENON program and includes additional groups, focusing on several R&D aspects required for the much larger detector.

Beyond its unparalleled sensitivity to dark matter, the detector's large mass and unprecedented low background level will also enable world-leading searches for additional signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics that would similarly revolutionize our understanding of the universe. In particular, the secondary science goal will be the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay in xenon, shedding light on the nature of the neutrino and the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe. The observatory will also perform searches for other rare processes and particles such as axions, hypothetical particles that might be emitted from the Sun. It will also measure neutrinos created in the Sun, the Earth's atmosphere, and potentially those from Galactic supernovae.

The new multi-tonne liquid xenon detector will combine the most successful technologies employed in rare-event searches with xenon detectors, including those developed for XENONnT and LUX-ZEPLIN, and from targeted R&D including that supported under DARWIN. Marc Schumann from the University of Freiburg and co-spokesperson of DARWIN says: "We already have a rather clear idea what is needed for the new detector, however, the devil is in the details and lots of R&D is still needed."

After a very successful first joint workshop in April 2021, 104 research group leaders from 16 countries have signed a memorandum of understanding on July 6, 2021. Scientific cooperation has now begun to realize this next-generation rare event observatory.

[14.06.2021] Torino and Ferrara join DARWIN

Two more groups which are already involved in the XENON program joined DARWIN on June 14, 2021, to strengthen the Italian DARWIN team: the Department of Physics and Earth Sciences and INFN Ferrara (PI Guido Zavattini) and the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica OATo and INFN Torino (PI Gian Carlo Trinchero).

[28.05.2021] Xenoscope: a 2.6m scale vertical DARWIN demonstrator

It requires lots of R&D to eventually design and construct a low-background detector as large as DARWIN. Two dedicated detector test platforms are currently being put into operation within the collaboration. One of them, the Xenoscope full-scale vertical demonstrator at the University of Zurich, was recently operated for the first time. The design and performance of the system dedicated to test electron drift and LXe purification over a distance of 2.6m is described in this article.

      

[27.04.2021] Joint workshop of the DARWIN and LZ Collaborations

Members of the DARWIN and LZ collaborations have met in an online workshop to discuss the status of R&D towards a future dark matter detector with a multi-ton LXe target and to explore the possibilities to join forces towards a common goal. The DARWIN project is the contination of the XENON program at LNGS (Italy), which still places with XENON1T the most stringent contraints on the direct search for dark matter for most dark matter masses. Its successor XENONnT is currently under commissioning at LNGS and employ a 5.9t LXe target. The US-based LZ project at SURF (USA) is also under commissioning and features a 7.0t LXe target.

The agenda of the workshop can be found here.

[11.03.2021] Prof. Christopher Tunnell receives CAREER award for DARWIN R&D

The National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US has funded Prof. Tunnell's group at Rice University (Houston, TX) for 5 years through their CAREER program for DARWIN R&D. This will support methodological advancements specifically for neutrinoless double-beta decay in DARWIN. Specifically, the supported R&D is to apply novel machine-learning methods developed by his other project DIDACTS for robust physics-constrainted machine learning that is able to communicate uncertainty.

[10.03.2021] Second virtual DARWIN Collaboration Meeting

The DARWIN collaboration has met for its second virtual Collaboration meeting from March 8-10, 2021. More than 100 scientists discussed the progress of the R&D towards the DARWIN multi-ton LXe dark matter detector.

      

[22.12.2020] Jörn Mahlstedt receives grant for R&D work relevant for DARWIN

Jörn Mahlstedt from the DARWIN group in Stockholm received a prestigious Starting Grant of the Swedish Research Council. In the next four years he will work on "Novel photosensors for future dark matter direct detection experiments", focusing on developing the ABALONE photosensor for use in liquid xenon. Such detector would be an ideally suited photodetector for DARWIN.

[21.11.2020] Prof. Tina Pollmann joins DARWIN Group at Nikhef/U Amsterdam

We are happy to announce that Tina Pollman, a new Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam and Nikhef, joined the DARWIN group at Nikhef/U Amsterdam. Tina is an expert on liquid noble gases and worked on DEAP-3600 before. Welcome Tina!

[11.09.2020] (Virtual) DARWIN Collaboration Meeting

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we had to cancel our planned DARWIN Collaboration meeting at LNGS and had to go "virtual" once more. Over three days about 100 DARWIN scientists from four continents discussed the status and the progress of the R&D towards the multi-ton liquid xenon DARWIN observatory.

      

[09.09.2020] Welcome Japan! Welcome Nagoya, Tokyo and Kobe!

We are happy to announce that the three Japanese groups in XENON (and formerly XMASS) from Nagoya, Tokyo and Kobe joined DARWIN in September 2020. Their long-standing experience using liquid xenon as dark matter (and neutrino) target will be very beneficial for DARWIN. The PIs are Yoshitaka Itow (Nagoya), Kai Martens (Tokyo) and Kentaro Miuchi (Kobe).

      

[29.07.2020] DARWIN at virtual ICHEP 2020 Conference

Yet another online conference this year, however, ICHEP 2020 at Prague did not eliminate the parallel session talks which allowed many experiments to present their current status. DARWIN was presented by Adriano di Giovanni from NYU Abu Dhabi. The slides can be found here.

[21.07.2020] IJCLab group at Orsay receives funding for DARWIN R&D

The DARWIN group at IJCLab - Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie - at Orsay has received a grant from the Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules (IN2P3) to develop a design for the DARWIN TPC electrodes. The group led by Carla Macolino brings in ample expertise from the design, construction and qualification of the XENONnT electrodes. These have a diameter of ~1.45m, while the DARWIN electrodes need to be as large as 2.6m. This poses serious challenges which are being addressed in the new R&D campaign.

      
       Working on the XENONnT TPC electrodes.

[20.07.2020] DARWIN featured at IDM 2020

Also the bi-annually IDM conference, one of the major events for dark matter hunters, was held onlineonly this year. DARWIN was featured in the nice plenary overview on "Future dark matter experiments with noble liquids" by Carla Macolino. Here are the slides.

[24.06.2020] DARWIN at Neutrino 2020

The international Neutrino 2020 conference has been held as "online-only" conference. Two posters from DARWIN members highlighted the sensitivity of the DARWIN observatory to neutrino physics: In addition, DARWIN's possible contributions to neutrino physics, including the sensitivity to detect supernova neutrinos, have been covered in the plenary talks given by (the non-DARWIN members) Jocelyn Monroe (slides) and Jason Detwiler (slides).

[08.06.2020] Study on DARWIN's Sensitivity to Solar Neutrinos published

A new study by the DARWIN collaboration shows that DARWIN, a 40t liquid xenon observatory with a very low background and a low threshold, will be capable to measure five solar neutrino components via elastic neutrino-electron scattering: pp, 7Be, 13N, 15O and pep, where the sensitity of the latter three would be optimized by depleting the target in 136Xe. The study is based on a realistic background model for the detector. The high statistics measurement of the pp-flux will allow for the first precision measurements of the weak mixing angle sin2(2θ) and the electron-neutrino survival probability Pee at low energies (see Figure). The precise measurements of the pp and 7Be fluxes will allow us constraining the solar luminosity and the combination of all flux measurements will shed light on the metallicity of solar models.

Publication: J. Aalbers et al. (DARWIN), Solar Neutrino Detection Sensitivity in DARWIN via Electron Scattering, arXiv:2006.03114.

      

[01.05.2020] Welcome Hamburg!

We are excited to annount that yet another group joins us to develop the DARWIN LXe observatory: Belina von Krosigk (SuperCDMS) and her Emmy Noether group at the University of Hamburg, Germany, join DARWIN starting May 2020.

      

[25.03.2020] DARWIN Sensitivity to the Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay of 136Xe

A new study by the DARWIN collaboration shows that the DARWIN observatory, with its 40t liquid xenon target and an ultra-low background will be able to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of the isotope 136Xe even without expensive isotopic enrichment. Thanks to its rather high natural abundance, the DARWIN target will contain about 3.6t of this isotope. Assuming material contaminations which have been already been identified and intrinsic backgrounds which have to be achieved for the dark matter search, DARWIN will be able to achieve a halflife sensitiviy of 2.4x1027 years after 10 years of operation with a 5t fiducial target. With this sensitivity DARWIN will be able to probe the inverted neutrino mass hierarchy.

Publication: F. Agostini et al. (DARWIN), Sensitivity of the DARWIN observatory to the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe, Eur. Phys. J. C 80, 808 (2020), arXiv:2003.13407.

      

[01.02.2020] University of Naples joins DARWIN

With the University of Naples Federico II, Italy (PI Michele Iacovacci) joining the team in February 2020, the DARWIN collaboration keeps growing.

      

[08.01.2020] Alabama and l'Aquila groups join DARWIN

With the start of the new year, the DARWIN welcomes two new groups joining the effort to built the ultimate xenon-based dark matter detector: the group at the University of Alabama, USA, is led by Igor Ostrovskiy (EXO) and the group at the University of l'Aquila, Italy, is led by Alfredo Ferella (XENON). The two new groups bring valuable experience to the project and increase the total number of institutions in DARWIN to 28.
Welcome Alabama! Welcome l'Aquila!

             

[10.12.2019] DARWIN Collaboration Meeting @ LNGS

More than 70 scientists from all around the world working on DARWIN gathered at the Italien Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) on December 9-10, 2019, to discuss the status of the project. Two days iwere dedicated to intense discussions and interesting presentations on recent progress on the R&D towards the DARWIN Astroparticle Physics Observatory. We thank LNGS for the hospitality during the meeting.

      

[31.10.2019] APPEC Community Meeting on Double-Beta Decay

The 40t active liquid xenon target of DARWIN contains about 3.6t of the double-beta decay isotope 136Xe. DARWIN has thus a very good sensitivity to search for the lepton-number violating neutrinoless double-beta decay of this isotope -- without any expensive enrichment. Marc Schumann (Freiburg) presented the latest studies on DARWIN's double-beta sensitivity (slides) at the APPEC Community Meeting on Double-Beta Decay in London (UK), where the common European strategy on this important topic was discussed.

[21.10.2019] DARWIN @ LNGS Scientific Committee Meeting

The DARWIN Collaboration has submitted a Letter of Intent to the Italian Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS, Assergi) and was invited to present the project at the 5nd Meeting of the Scientific Committee. The talk was given by Marc Schumann (Freiburg) and can be found here

[13.09.2019] Summer Conferences...

DARWIN has been presented at various conferences during the summer.

[14.08.2019] Vinca Institute/University of Belgrade joins DARWIN

It is our pleasure to welcome our new collaborators from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences/University of Belgrade (Serbia) to the DARWIN collaboration. The group brings expertise from experimental particle physics, theoretical nuclear physics, statistical data analysis and computing. Welcome Belgrade!

      

[16.07.2019] DARWIN @ SNOLAB Future Projects Workshop

While the scientific scope of DARWIN is rather well defined, there is not yet a definitive decision which laboratory will eventually host the project. DARWIN got invited to present itself at the Future Projects Workshop of the Canadian SNOLAB in Sudbury (Ontario). The talk given by Darryl Masson (U Freiburg) entitled "DARWIN: More than just the ultimative dark matter detector" can be found here

[14.07.2019] DARWIN @ EPS-HEP 2019

The European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP) is one of the major international conferences that reviews the field. It is organized by the High Energy and Particle Physics Divison of the European Physical Society and the 2019 edition takes place in Ghent, Belgium. The ultimate astroparticle physics observatory DARWIN, its various science channels and the status of the R&D efforts were presented by Kevin Thieme (U Zurich). The slides can be found here.

[04.07.2019] Awards for DARWIN PhD student Yanina Biondi

DARWIN PhD student Yanina Biondi (U Zurich) participated in the 57th International Erice School of Subnuclear Physics "In search for the unexpected". She presented a poster about "Xenoscope: Towards DARWIN - the Ultimate Dark Matter Detector" and was awarded the diploma for the best poster. She was a very active participant at the school and was also awarded the Bjorn Wiik diploma for new talents in physics. Congratulations Yanina!

[05.06.2019] DARWIN presented at PATRAS 2019

The DARWIN low-background astroparticle physics observatory and its science opportunities were presented by Dr. Luca Scotto Lavina (LPNHE) at the 15th PATRAS Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs (PATRAS 2019) which was held in Freiburg (Germany) from June 3-7, 2019. The slides of the talk can be found here.

[15.03.2019] DARWIN Input to European Strategy in Particle Physics

With its excellent sensitivity to various dark matter candidates (WIMPs, axions, ALPs), neutrinos (solar, supernovae, coherent neutrino nucleus, scattering) and other rate processes (neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe, double electron capture of 124Xe, etc.), DARWIN will be an important low-background observatory and a central player in the international particle physics landscape. To stress the importance of the DARWIN science, the collaboration has submitted a document as input to the European Particle Physics Strategy Update 2018-2020.
This document can be found here

[18.12.2018] DARWIN Collaboration Meeting in Zurich

About 70 members of the ever-growing DARWIN collaboration have met at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) to discuss and coordinate their R&D activities towards the ultimate dark matter experiment. A total of 37 contributions focusing on all relevant aspects for DARWIN were presented.

      

[24.07.2018] DARWIN presented at IDM 2018

The Identification of Dark Matter (IDM) conference series is one of the most important bi-annual meetings of the dark matter community. Its 12th edition in July 2018 was held at Brown University (Providence, USA). The DARWIN project as the ultimate WIMP detector and its rich science program was presented by Fabian Kuger (Freiburg). The slides can be found here.

[18.07.2018] CNO-Neutrinos in DARWIN

In a recent paper, DARWIN collaborators Jayden Newstead (ASU) and Rafael Lang (Purdue) show that future xenon experiments with a 200 txy exposure (=DARWIN) will be able to detect the flux of CNO-solar neutrinos at 3 sigma signicicance and will thus provide important insight on the metallicity of the Sun's interior.

      

The images from the article show that the CNO components of the neutrino flux (blue, left) are hidden below the much more abundant signal from solar pp- and 7Be neutrinos. However, the CNO spectral shape is different and extends up to MeV-scale electronic recoil. The CNO signal is also buried below the background from 2 neutrino double beta decay (ννββ blue, right), which dominates the electronic background in multi-ton-scale LXe dark matter detectors. To measure the CNO-flux, it is thus mandatory to deplete the LXe target from 36Xe by a factor 100 (dashed blue).

  • J.L. Newstead, L.E. Strigari, R.F. Lang, CNO Solar Neutrinos in Next-Generation Dark Matter Experiments, arXiv:1807.07169.

[01.07.2018] DARWIN has elected new Management

In order to come up with a conceptual design report and a technical design report for the ultimate dark matter observatory DARWIN in the next years, which will be followed by a full proposal to the funding agencies, the DARWIN collaboration has recently established a new management structure and elected the following people for a term of 2 years:
  • Spokespersons: Laura Baudis (Zurich), Marc Schumann (Freiburg)
  • Technical Coordinators: Uwe Oberlack (Mainz), Luca Grandi (Chicago)
  • Speakers Coordinator: Ranny Budnik (Weizmann Inst.)
  • Outreach and Publication Coordinators: Rafael Lang (Purdue), Patrick Decowski (Nikhef)
  • Treasurer: Guido Drexlin (KIT)

[04.06.2018] DARWIN @ NEUTRINO 2018

The DARWIN observatory will not only be the most sensitive detector for dark matter WIMPs with masses above a few GeV, it's ultra-low background from electronic recoils also implies a very good sensitivity for neutrinos. These science channels and the requirement to achieve the low background were discussed in posters by Patricia Sanchez-Lucas (U Zurich) and Guillaume Eurin (MPIK) at the NEUTRINO 2018 conference in Heidelberg. The posters can be found here:

[23.02.2018] DARWIN @ UCLA Dark Matter 2018

Manfred Lindner (MPIK Heidelberg) presented the DARWIN project at the Dark Matter Conference which takes place every second year in Los Angeles. He emphasized the challenges of a multi-ton liquid xenon detector, especially in terms of backgrounds, and presented promising solutions. The slides of the talk can be found here.

[09.01.2018] DARWIN on APPEC Roadmap

The Astroparticle Physics European Consortium (APPEC) has published its strategy for the years 2017-2026. The consortium appreciates the goal of an ultimate dark matter detector as proposed by DARWIN and recomments to converge on a strategy for its realization in the next years.

[10.10.2017] Neutrino Physics with DARWIN

Neutrino physics with DARWIN is the title of an article written by M.L. Benabderrahmane (NYUAD) on behalf of the DARWIN collaboration and which appeared now in the proceedings of the Neutrino 2016 conference.
M.L. Benabderrahmane, Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 888, 012048 (2017).

[15.12.2017] DARWIN @ LAUNCH 2017

LAUNCH 2017, a workshop on neutrino, dark matter and beyond the standard model physics was held at the Max Planck Institute of Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg on September 14-15, 2017, celebrating the 60th birthday of DARWIN member Manfred Lindner. Marc Schumann (Freiburg) presented DARWIN at this occasion (slides)

[12.09.2017] DARWIN Meeting in Freiburg

More than 40 members of the DARWIN collaboration did meet in Freiburg (Germany) to discuss the next steps of the project. The two days were dedicated to intense discussions on the structure of the collaboration and how its goal of an ultimate dark matter detector is being pushed forward in the upcoming years.

      

At this occasion, the collaboration decided to accept three new groups joining DARWIN: the groups of LPNHE, France (Luca Scotto Lavina), LAL, France (Carla Macolino) and of the University of Heidelberg (Stephanie Hansmann-Menzemer et al.).

[01.08.2017] DARWIN at Summer Conferences

The season of summer conferences has started in May with the DARWIN project being presented at many of the important astroparticle physics and particle physics events.

[28.04.2017] DARWIN endorsed by German particle physics communities

The German committees for astroparticle physics (KAT), elementary particle physics (KET) and for hadrons and nuclei (KHuK) organized a meeting in Mainz to discuss their common strategy regarding the Future of non-Collider Physics. The final declaration of the workshop (available in German only, pdf) states that DARWIN, with its broad scientific program on neutrinos, should be realized if the future direct detection results are promising.

[18.03.2017] Two ERC grants will boost R&D for DARWIN

Two members of the DARWIN consortium were awarded prestigious ERC grant from the European Research Council.

Marc Schumann (Freiburg) was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for his project ULTIMATE in November, and Laura Baudis (Zurich) received an ERC Advanced for her project Xenoscope in March. ULTIMATE will start in May 2017 and Xenoscope in October. Both projects aim at preparing for the conceptual design of DARWIN, by conducting ambitious R&D to solve various technical challenges.

[15.02.2017] Article on DARWIN in CERN courier

The article Testing WIMPs to the limit authored by the DARWIN project coordinator Laura Baudis was published in the CERN Courier. It describes how the multi-ton liquid xenon observatory DARWIN could be realized at the Italian Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) by the mid-2020s and the plethora of science topics in particle and astroparticle physics it can explore.

      

The image illustrates the baseline design of the DARWIN time projection chamber, with two arrays of photomultipliers installed above and below the sensitive liquid xenon target.

[10.11.2016] DARWIN Science Paper published

The scientific article describing the DARWIN facility, its WIMP and non-WIMP science channels, backgrounds and the current status of R&D towards its realitation has now been publcished in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics: DARWIN Collaboration, JCAP 11, 017 (2016), arXiv:1606.07001.

[01.11.2016] DARWIN Bern group moves to Freiburg

The DARWIN group of Marc Schumann is moving from the University of Bern (Switzerland) to the University of Freiburg (Germany). The group plans to extend its DARWIN acitivities at the new institution.

[20.09.2016] DARWIN @ TeVPA 2016

Two dedicated talks presented the science opportunities of DARWIN at the TeV Particle Astrophysics Conference (TeVPA), which was held at CERN this year. Alexander Kish (U Zurich, slides) introduced the DARWIN project and described its sensitivity to WIMPs, and also summarized the plethora of new science channels which open up with a multi-ton liquid xenon detector. Shayne Reichard (Purdue, slides) focused on the possibility to detect supernova neutrinos, as studied in a recent publication.

[21.07.2016] DARWIN @ IDM 2016

The bi-annual IDM conference on the Identification of Dark Matter is one of the largest conferences focussing almost entirely on dark matter, with experimental direct detection covering a large fraction of the agenda. The 2016 edition of the event took place in Sheffield and Auke Pieter Colijn (NIKHEF/U Amsterdam) has presented the science case for DARWIN and the path towards the ultimate dark matter detector. The slides are available here.

[08.07.2016] DARWIN at summer conferences

The DARWIN project has been presented at two summer conferences: Luca Scotto Lavina (Subatech) discussed the project and its science opportunities (slides here) at the Dark Matter 2016 conference in Santander (Spain). The poster presentation of Lotfi Benabderrahmane (NYUAD) at NEUTRINO 2016 in London focused on the new possibilities for neutrino physics which will open up in DARWIN.

[01.07.2016] Supernova detection in DARWIN

A new study on the possibility to detect neutrinos emitted in supernova explosions in large-scale liquid xenon TPCs has been published online at arXiv:1606.09243, led by DARWIN members from Purdue and Bologna. The detection process in liquid xenon detectors such as DARWIN is via Z-boson mediated elastic coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering (CNNS). This complements "conventional" detectors for supernova neutrinos, as this process is sensitive to all three neutrino flavors and their anti-particles and therefore allows for the reconstruction of the neutrino-light curve without uncertainties from neutrino oscillation as well as the measurement of the total energy emitted in neutrinos.

      

The Figure from the publication shows the expected neutrino rate observed the 40 t liquid xenon target of DARWIN during the first second after the explosion of a supernova of 27 solar masses at a distance of 10 kpc. Thanks to its large target, low background and low energy threshold, DARWIN will observe about 300 neutrinos in the first second, which will allow to trace the emission rate during the supernova neutronization and accretion phases.

[23.06.2016] DARWIN collaboration publishes DARWIN science paper

Today, the DARWIN collaboration has published a detailed article on DARWIN, its science channels, its background and on the R&D towards its realization. The study, signed by 119 authors can be found here: arXiv:1606.07001.

With a design target mass of 40 tons of liquid xenon, DARWIN will be able to search for

  • WIMP dark matter in the spin-independent, spin-dependent and inelastic channels,
  • axions and axion-like particles via the axio-electric effect,
  • low energy solar neutrinos (pp-neutrinos, 7Be neutrinos),
  • coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering,
  • neutrinos from supernova explosions,
  • neutrinoless double-beta decay of 136Xe,
  • and other rare nuclear processes.

      

The Figure is from the publication and shows the sensitivity of DARWIN to the effective Majorana neutrino mass via a search for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 136Xe. Two different exposures (30 t x y and 140 t x y) at two different background levels are shown. The 'ultimate' case assumes that background from the detector materials can be removed completely, thus the remaining backgrounds are from 222Rn in the Xe target, 8B solar neutrinos and the two-neutrino double beta decay.

[22.06.2016] DARWIN at PATRAS 2016

DArk matter search WIth liquid xenonN (DARWIN) has been presented at the 12th PATRAS Workshop on Axions, Wimps and Wisps which took place on the island of Jeju (South Korea). Moritz von Sivers (Bern) presented the project and its many search channels.

[09.03.2016] Experimental group from RPI joins DARWIN

The group of Ethan Brown at the Rensselaer Polynechnic Institute, RPI (Troy, USA) has joined DARWIN. It will strenghen our R&D efforts in terms of the handling and purification of a large-mass gas target.

[19.02.2016] DARWIN presented at UCLA Dark Matter 2016

The DARWIN project, its science goals in terms of dark matter and other astroparticle physics channels, and some recent R&D projects have been presented by the DARWIN project coordinator Laura Baudis at the ULCA Dark Matter Conference, which takes place in Los Angeles (USA) every second year. The presentation can be found here.

[30.01.2016] DARWIN Consortium is growing again

We are happy to welcome three new experimental research groups to the DARWIN consortium. The groups from University of California at San Diego (Kaixuan Ni), the University of Chicago (Luca Grandi) and the New York University at Abu Dhabi (Francesco Arneodo) bring in a broad expertise in experimental rare event searches with noble liquids.

[25.11.2015] Inauguation of new graduate school in Münster

The DARWIN colleagues from the University of Münster (group from Christian Weinheimer) inaugurated their new DFG-funded reasearch training group Strong and Weak Interactions - from Hadrons to Dark Matter with a retreat in Telgte (DE) from November 24-26, 2015. The science case for DARWIN -- WIMPs and various other rare processes -- was presented at this occasion.

[10.11.2015] Progress towards new readout schemes for TPCs

The DARWIN group at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Amos Breskin) has recently published two studies in the Journal of Instrumentation (KINST), demonstrating interesting new approaches for the readout of large-scale LXe TPCs. The first publication describes the first results of a large-area cryogenic gaseous photomultiplier (GPM) coupled to a dual-phase LXe TPC, which might be used to realize a TPC with a 4pi readout. The second article reports on the diect observation of gas bubble-assisted electroluminiscence in LXe; a potential way to realize a single-phase detector with "local dual-phase" amplification.

      

The Figure shows light (S1) and charge (S2) signal from a dual-phase TPC, recoded with a PMT and a GPM. The latter was operated at a gain of 1x105 and the signal is shaped using a timing filter amplifier.

[10.09.2015] The science case of DARWIN at TAUP 2015

The scientific opportunities which open up with a multi ton-scale liquid xenon detector such as DARIN were presented by Marc Schumann (Bern) at the 14th Internatonal Conference on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP 2015), which took place in Torino. The talk, which emphasized that the neutrino-floor is accessible with DARWIN, is available here.

[31.07.2015] Cosmogenic activation of Xenon

Intrinsic backgrounds, the ones which cannot be reduced by target fiducialization, are most critical for large-scale dark matter detectors. The question whether the activation of the xenon gas by cosmic rays can lead to problematic backgrounds was investigated in a dedicated study by DARWIN members (arXiv:1507.03792). Several cosmogenic isotopes were identified in a xenon sample which has been activated for one year at an altitude of 3470 m, however, only one of the isotopes (125Sb) can potentially lead to a background for the dark matter search. An ultra-pure sample of copper was exposed to cosmic rays together with the xenon in order to provide a benchmark and to test commonly used codes to calculate the activation.

[24.07.2015] DARWIN presented at EPS HEP 2015 in Vienna

Alfredo D. Ferella (Stockholm) has presented the DARWIN observatory and its science channels at the high energy physics conference of the European Physical Society (EPS HEP 2015), one of the largest topical events in the field, which was held in Vienna this year. The slides can be found here.

[30.06.2015] The WIMP sensitivity of a multi-ton scale LXe detector

DARWIN members from Bern, Zurich and Bologna have studied the WIMP dark matter reach of a DARWIN-like multi-ton LXe detector. Taking into account all backgrounds, including the one from solar pp-neutrinos, the DARWIN sensitivity was studied vs. exposure, background rejection, energy threshold as well as energy scale. The authors conclude that spin-independent cross sections as low as 2.5 x 10-49 cm2 for WIMP masses around 40 GeV/c2 can be probed with an exposure of 200 t x y. In addition, DARWIN will also have an excellent sensitivity to spin-dependent couplings (in particular when WIMPs couple to neutrons) as well as to inelastic processes. (Read more: arXiv:1506.08309).

      

The Figures show the sensitivity of DARWIN for two different exposures of 200 t x y (black, with 1 and 2σ bands) and 500 t x y. The left plots shows spin-independent couplings, the right plot spin-dependent couplings to neutrons. The DARWIN sensitivity is compared to already achieved results by XENON100 and LUX, plus the expected sensitivities of upcoming experiments.

[13.06.2015] LXe-based Dark Matter Searches beyond XENON

A talk on the multi-ton stage of the XENON experiment and how to go beyond to the DARWIN scale has been presented at WIN 2015 in Heidelberg by Hardy Simgen (MPIK), with a special emphasis on the various technical challenges which will arise. The talk can be found here.

[28.04.2015] The future of multi-ton LXe and LAr detectors presented at LNGS

Coordinator Laura Baudis has presented the DARWIN project at a 1-day workshop on the future of LNGS in Assergi, Italy. In the DARWIN presentation she made the case that a multi-ton scale dual phase TPC filled with liquid xenon is ideally suited to search for WIMP dark matter for all masses above about 7 GeV/c2, probing spin-independent, spin-dependent as well as inelastic channels, with an appealing complementarity to dark matter searches at colliders. Due to its extremely low background, DARWIN-LXe will be sensitive to various other science channels as well, such as low energy solar neutrinos, axions and axion-like particles, supernova neutrinos, double beta decays, etc.

At the same meeting, the argon groups presented their independent program for the LAr future: following a 20t stage of DarkSide, they propose to build Argo, a LAr detector of 300t mass. Due to the excellent background reduction based on pulse-shape discrimination, such a detector would not only search for WIMP dark matter at masses of 1000 GeV/c2 and above, but would also be able to measure 7Be, pep, and CNO neutrinos with high precision, exploiting the energy region above the 39Ar background.

As a consequence, the LXe and LAr communities decided to independently work towards two very large-scale detectors, DARWIN (LXe) and Argo (LAr)

[09.01.2015] DARWIN meeting at the Weizmann Institute of Science

More than 35 members of the DARWIN consortium have gathered at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (IL) to discuss the status and the future of the project.

      
At the first day, we organized a workshop in order to review the current status of the field in various aspects, which was open to everybody interested and very well attended: up to 100 people followed the presentations. All contributions can be found here.

[15.10.2014] DARWIN received A-rating on Swiss Roadmap

Switzerland is putting together a new roadmap for large infrastructures of national importance. The Swiss DARWIN groups have submitted a proposal to get onto this roadmap. It has been evaluated and has received the highest possible ranking, "A: considerable importance", and a clear statement that it should be included in the roadmap.

[24.07.2014] Change of the DARWIN URL: We can now be found even easier!

As of July 24, 2014, finding the DARWIN pages in the web is even easier than before. The new address is darwin-observatory.org. Of course the old URL at the University of Zürich remains valid as well.

[12.06.2014] DARWIN presented at SWAPS 2014

The project coordinator of DARWIN, Laura Baudis (UZH), presented the status of the project at the SWAPS 2014 workshop in Cartigny, close to Geneva (Switzerland). The main topics of the meeting were astroparticle and neutrino physics, and the DARWIN slides can be found online.

[12.05.2014] Review on future noble gas experiments covering DARWIN

DARWIN was presented as the ultimate WIMP detector in a review talk on future noble gas experiments. The presentation was given by Patrick Decowski (Nikhef/Amsterdam) at the Latest Results in Dark Matter Searches workshop in Stockholm (Sweden).

[28.02.2014] DARWIN presented at UCLA Dark Matter 2014 in Los Angeles

The DARWIN project was presented by Giuliana Fiorillo (Napoli) at the UCLA Dark Matter 2014 conference, which takes place every second year in Los Angeles (USA). Aiming for the ultimate WIMP detector, the DARWIN talk (slides) was presented in the session covering new very large detectors.

[19.12.2013] General DARWIN meeting in Naples

The 5th general meeting of the DARWIN consortium took place from December 9-11, 2013, at the University of Naples (Italy). More that 25 members attended the presentations on recent developments to improve low-background noble-liquid TPCs, the science reach of DARWIN-type detectors, and to discuss the future of DARWIN beyond the ASPERA-funded initial period.

      
The link to the presentations can be found on the restricted pages.

[29.09.2013] Neutrino Physics with a DARWIN-type Detector

Members of the DARWIN collaboration, from the University of Zurich, University of Bern, and the MPI für Kernphysik, have shown in a recent publication (arXiv:1309.7024) that a DARWIN-type dark matter detector, filled with about 20 tons of liquid xenon and operated as a dual phase TPC, can not only detect WIMP dark matter with a sensitivity down to spin-independent cross sections of a few 10-49 cm2, but that it can also be used to do neutrino physics.

Using a detailed Monte Carlo simulations, and realistic assumptions on background levels and thresholds, they could show that a first real-time measurement of the flux of solar pp-neutrinos is feasible to a precision of ~1% in a 5 years measurement. Other new neutrino physics channels are the neutrinoless double beta-decay of Xe-136, where competitive sensitivities can be reached even without isotopic enrichment, and coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering.

[13.06.2013] The scientific reach of ton-scale experiments

In a new article, arXiv:1306.3244 and PRD 88, 076011 (2013), the DARWIN members of Arizona study the scientific dark matter reach of ton-scale dark matter detectors, such as DARWIN. In their numerical study, they incorporate realistic detector physics, particle physics and astrophysical uncertainties and demonstrate to what extent two targets, senon and argon, with similar sensitivities can remove various degeneracies and allow a determination of dark matter cross sections and masses while also probing rough aspects of the dark matter phase space distribution.

[03.05.2013] The DARWIN consortium is growing again

The development of a multi-ton scale dark matter facility is an important goal in the Astroparticle Physics Community and is attracting more and more scientists. As of 01.05.2013, two new groups have joined the DARWIN consortium: an independent group from the University of Zurich (Ben Kilminster) and one from the University of Stockholm (Jan Conrad).

[12.12.2012] Article on DARWIN on the Aspera website

A popular science article featuring DARWIN has been published on the Aspera website. It summarizes the challenges in direct dark matter detection and for DARWIN, based on an interview with the DARWIN project coordinator Laura Baudis (Zurich).
link to the article

[02.12.2012] Three new groups joining DARWIN

The DARWIN consortium is growing again. Three new groups are joining the international effort to build a multi-ton dark matter detector using a liquid noble gas target. The groups from Imperial College London, UK (Roberto Trotta) and of Purdue University, USA (Rafael Lang) are joining as of December 2012, the group from Bern, Switzerland (Marc Schumann) will start in January 2013.

[25.09.2012] Fourth general Meeting of the DARWIN Consortium in Mainz

On September 13/14, 2012, more than 30 members of the DARWIN consortium representing the xenon and the argon side of the project met for their annual meeting at the Johannes Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, Germany. It was a opportunity to discuss the status of the project, to present recent research highlights, and to meet new collaborators.

      
All presentations of this meeting can be found here (restricted access).

[10.08.2012] 4th DARWIN Meeting in Mainz

The 4th general meeting of the DARWIN consortium will take place in Mainz September 13/14, 2012. More information on the meeting and registration details for members can be found here.

[21.07.2012] DARWIN was presented at the 8th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs held at Chicago

The Patras workshop series continues to attract the key players in the field of direct dark matter detection to gather in a nice and personal atmosphere to discuss recent results and the progress achieved so far. DARWIN was presented in a combined talk with XENON1T, the slides can be found here.

[06.03.2012] Article on GridPix published

A conference proceedings article on the development of GridPix detectors for dark matter searches with noble liquids such as DARWIN has been published in IEEE NS. The Nikhef group working at this subject aims to improve the charge measurement in double phase time projection chambers.

[28.02.2012] DARWIN was presented at UCLA Dark Matter Conference

Every second year in February, experimentalists and theorists gather at the UCLA Dark Matter conference organized by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) to discuss the progress of the field. DARWIN was presented at this meeting, the slides can be found here.

[01.02.2012] TAUP Proceeings paper on DARWIN online

The status of the DARWIN project and highlighs of recent progress was presented at the TAUP 2011 conference in Munich. The proceedings paper of this conference is now available online.

[11.01.2012] TU Dresden joins DARWIN

The DARWIN consortium is growing once more. The group of Kai Zuber at TU Dresden (Germany) is joining DARWIN with the start of the year 2012.

[29.11.2011] New Proceedings Paper on DARWIN online

An article to appear in the Proceedings of the 7th Patras workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs is available online now. It gives an overview on the project and on the current status of the R&D activities within the consortium.

[18.10.2011] Arizona State University joins DARWIN

We are pleased to announce that our working group "Scientific Impact" is getting stronger as the cosmology group of Arizona State University (Lawrence Krauss) is joining the DARWIN consortium.

[20.09.2011] Third general DARWIN meeting in Amsterdam

On September 15 and 16, 2011, the third face-to-face meeting of the DARWIN consortium was held at Nikhef in Amsterdam. Many members were attending and presented their research progress on the various topics covered in DARWIN.

      
All presentations of this meeting can be found here (restricted access).

[08.09.2011] Talk on DARWIN at TAUP 2011

The bi-annual meeting on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics (TAUP) is one of the most iimportant and biggest meeting for Dark Matter Searches. It's 12th edition was held September 5-9 in Munich, Germany.

DARWIN has been presented at this meeting, the presentation can be found here.

[01.08.2011] Information regarding the 3rd DARWIN Meeting

As announced previously, the third general meeting of the DARWIN consortium will take place at Nikhef in Amsterdam on September 15 and 16, 2011. Information regarding accomodation and transportation can be found in the DARWIN wiki.

[01.07.2011] DARWIN presented at PATRAS11

The DARWIN project has been presented at the 7th Patras Workshop on Axions, WIMPs and WISPs which was taking place end of June on the Greek island Mykonos.

[01.06.2011] DARWIN consortium is growing

We are happy to announce that new groups have recently joined the DARWIN consortium:

  • University of Bologna (Italy)
  • Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel)
  • University of Perugia (Italy)
  • INFN Milano and INFN LNGS (Italy)
We are looking forward to cooperate with the new members.

[02.05.2011] Announcement of the 3rd DARWIN Meeting

The third general meeting of the DARWIN consortium will take place in Amsterdam on September 15 and 16, 2011.

[22.12.2010] Conference Proceedings Article on DARWIN online

The first conference proceedings article on the DARWIN project, based on a presentation given at IDM2010 in Montpellier, France, is now online:

[22.10.2010] ASPERA Technology Forum, Munich

The DARWIN project and its technical requirements were presented at the ASPERA Technology Forum on Photosensors and auxiliary electronics in Munich, Germany.

[15.09.2010] Second general DARWIN meeting in Zurich

The second meeting of the DARWIN consortium was held on Sept 14-15 at the University Zurich. About 30 scientists came together to report on the progress that has been achieved in the time since the last meeting.

      
More information about this event and the results presented at the meeting (restricted access) can be found here.

[02.08.2010] Announcement of the second DARWIN meeting in Zurich

The second general meeting of the DARWIN consortium will take place at the University of Zurich on September 14-15 2010.
More information can be found here.

[30.07.2010] DARWIN was presented at several international conferences

Since the first meeting, the DARWIN project and the consortium were presented at several international conferences and workshops in Europe and the United States. The talks of Laura Baudis (DARWIN project coordinator) can be found online:

[26.01.2010] First DARWIN meeting

The first face-to-face meeting of the full DARWIN consortium was held at the Physik Institut of the University of Zürich on January 25-26, 2010.
      
More than 35 members of the collaboration got together and discussed the DARWIN project in an open and constructive atmosphere. It was a succesful start of the collaboration on its way towards a large scale, liquid noble gas based Dark Matter experiment in Europe.
Collaboration members can find more information about this event on the internal pages.

[30.10.2009] DARWIN approved by the ASPERA network

We are happy to announce that the DARWIN proposal got approval by the ASPERA network, and that the DARWIN groups from Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland will be funded to work on this project at a total cost of 633 kEuro.
The network says about DARWIN: One of the strengths of this project is that it brings together groups working in the existing Xenon, WArP-140 and ArDM collaborations and unites expertise on liquid noble gas detectors, low-background techniques, cryogenic infrastructures and shielding.
Read more on the ASPERA website.

[04.06.2009] DARWIN proposal submitted

The proposal of the DARWIN (Dark Matter Wimp Search With Noble Liquids) collaboration has been submitted to the ASPERA network.
ASPERA (AStroParticle ERAnet) is a network of national government agencies responsible for coordinating and funding national research efforts in Astroparticle Physics.
 

 
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