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SuperCDMS at Toronto

SuperCDMS is an extraordinarily sensitive dark matter search experiment taking place at SNOLAB, Canada’s underground laboratory. An international collaboration, SuperCDMS has a very strong Canadian contribution with researchers from Queen’s University, TRIUMF, University of British Columbia, Université de Montréal and University of Toronto.

The experiment uses silicon and germanium cryogenic detectors that are sensitive to the interaction of dark matter particles with both nuclei and the electrons surrounding the nucleus. These detectors are housed in a cryostat that keeps them around 30 mK and carefully shielded by copper, lead, polyethylene and water to minimize the radioactive backgrounds.

SuperCDMS SNOLAB is currently in its commissioning phase (https://www.snolab.ca/experiment/supercdms/), with full science operations expected to begin later this year! The Toronto group was heavily involved in the testing, installation and integration of the detector underground at SNOLAB, and is continuing to take leadership roles in many Operations tasks. These include on-site and remote shifts, maintenance of various systems, and fast-turnaround data analysis to assess detector performance. The group is also contributing to the background analysis, simulation of the signals produced by the detector, and development of the simulation & statistical tools needed to discover dark matter using the science data. In addition, we're already looking ahead to fabricate prototypes of next-generation devices.

Our detector development & characterization laboratory, supervised by Prof Ziqing Hong & Prof Miriam Diamond in the MP basement, features a brand-new dilution refrigerator that allows detectors to be operated in the tens-of-milliKelvins temperature range. The lab performs hardware tests to help us understand the performance of the detectors operating underground, and also prototypes new devices with even lower energy thresholds and better resolution.

The detector simulation effort headed by Prof. Miriam Diamond works to improve the software to accurately model the response of the SuperCDMS detectors, and produces large numbers of simulated events. It employs the Data Research Alliance of Canada high-performance computing platforms; further details can be found in the tab below.

Prof. Pekka Sinervo is responsible for organizing the work of SuperCDMS collaborators underground at SNOLAB, managing the shipment of material to SNOLAB and underground, software development, statistical modellng and data analysis.

Refrigerator

SuperCDMS Onboarding
Steps to take to get registered into the Toronto SuperCDMS group
SuperCDMS Detector Simulation
Introduction to SuperCDMS detector simulation and setup instructions
SuperCDMS Collaboration Information
Information about the SuperCDMS Collaboration and on-line resources
Local Detector Development Facility
MP 090/092 hosts an astroparticle detector development facility, including a new state-of-the-art dilution refrigerator and low-noise electronics readout for quantum sensors.
SuperCDMS Members