Experimental HEP seminars

Something Old, Something New

Juan Collar

University of Chicago

We'll discuss two initiatives in astroparticle and neutrino physics at the University of Chicago, both sharing in common the revival and deep revision of old technologies to address new experimental challenges. COUPP employs ultra-stable heavy liquid bubble chambers to search for WIMP dark matter. First results leading to improved limits on spin-dependent WIMP couplings will be presented, together with the most recent progress. COGENT aims at the detection of very faint (~100 eV) signals in detectors massive enough to allow searches for rare processes, using our recently developed p-type point contact (ppc) Germanium detectors. The broad range of applications (coherent neutrino scattering, light WIMP searches, double-beta decay) available for these new semiconductor devices will be described, as well as the status of an upcoming reactor (anti)neutrino experiment.