SPLENDOR: a novel detector platform to search for light dark matter with narrow-gap semiconductors

  • Nuclear, Particle, Astroparticle and Cosmology (NUPAC) Seminars

September 9, 2025 2:00 PM
PAIS 3205

Host:
Dinesh Loomba
Presenter:
Daniele Alves (LANL)
About 85% of the total mass in the Universe consists of dark matter, yet little is known about its particle properties such as mass and interactions with ordinary matter. The only way to answer some of the most basic questions about the nature of dark matter is to detect it in laboratory experiments. Unfortunately, existing detector technology is insensitive to a wide range of parameter space of dark matter models which predict that dark matter particles would make tiny energy deposits in a detector no larger that O(eV). SPLENDOR is a new detector platform based narrow-gap semiconductors and low-noise charge amplifiers designed to probe currently inaccessible mass ranges for light dark matter. In this talk, I will provide a broad overview of the various cross-disciplinary components of SPLENDOR, as well its current status and future plans. Based on arXiv:2507.17782. 

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