PICASSO, COUPP and PICO - search for dark matter with bubble chambers

• Main Authors: Amole C., Ardid M., Asner D. M., Baxter D., Behnke E., Bhattacharjee P., Borsodi H., Bou-Cabo M., Brice S. J., Broemmelsiek D., Clark K., Collar J. I., Cooper P. S., Crisler M., Dahl C. E., Das M., Debris F., Dhungana N., Farine J., Felis I., Filgas R., Fines-Neuschild M., Girard F., Giroux G., Hai M., Hall J., Harris O., Jackson C. M., Jin M., Krauss C., Lafrenière M., Laurin M., Lawson I., Levine I., Lippincott W. H., Mann E., Martin J. P., Maurya D., Mitra P., Neilson R., Noble A. J., Plante A., Podviyanuk R., Priya S., Robinson A. E., Ruschman M., Scallon O., Seth S., Sonnenschein A., Starinski N., Štekl I., Vázquez-Jáuregui E., Wells J., Wichoski U., Zacek V., Zhang J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2015-01-01
• Series: EPJ Web of Conferences
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20159504020
• ISSN: 2100-014X

The PICASSO and COUPP collaborations use superheated liquid detectors to search for cold dark matter through the direct detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). These experiments, located in the underground laboratory of SNOLAB, Canada, detect phase transitions triggered by nuclear recoils in the keV range induced by interactions with WIMPs. We present details of the construction and operation of these detectors as well as the results, obtained by several years of observations. We also introduce PICO, a joint effort of the two collaborations to build a second generation ton-scale bubble chamber with 250 liters of active liquid.