Speaker
Description
The upcoming COSINUS experiment will search for dark matter using cryogenic NaI calorimeters with dual-channel readout of the phonon and scintillation light signals. Its first goal is crosschecking the longstanding DAMA/LIBRA dark matter claim with a target exposure of 100kgd. Via the discrimination between nuclear recoil signals and electromagnetic background, COSINUS detectors achieve unique sensitivity for this purpose, and are also able to provide a model-independent test that does not require any assumption on the dark matter spectrum. Prototypes reach a nuclear recoil energy resolution of 150eV, and detector modules will be operated in the underground laboratory of LNGS together with an active water cherenkov muon veto. After successful construction of the facility, commissioning is ongoing, and first detectors are being installed in the pulse tube precooled "dry" dilution cryostat for test runs. In this contribution, we will give an overview on the COSINUS cryogenic facility at LNGS, recent prototype results and an outlook on the physics reach of the experiment and its measurement strategy.
| Main Contribution topic | Direct detection |
|---|---|
| Secondary contribution topic | Instrumentation for Dark Matter |