Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2018) 133: 131
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2018-11973-4

Technical Report

DarkSide-20k: A 20 tonne two-phase LAr TPC for direct dark matter detection at LNGS

¹ Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 99352, Richland, WA, USA
² Fondazione Bruno Kessler, 38123, Povo, Italy
³ Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications, 38123, Povo, Italy
⁴ Department of Physics, University of Houston, 77204, Houston, TX, USA
⁵ Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil
⁶ Centro Fermi Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche “Enrico Fermi”, 00184, Roma, Italy
⁷ INFN Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy
⁸ Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy
⁹ Physics Department, Augustana University, 57197, Sioux Falls, SD, USA
¹⁰ Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20133, Milano, Italy
¹¹ INFN Milano, 20133, Milano, Italy
¹² CIEMAT, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, 28040, Madrid, Spain
¹³ INFN Pisa, 56127, Pisa, Italy
¹⁴ Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Pisa, 56127, Pisa, Italy
¹⁵ INFN Milano Bicocca, 20126, Milano, Italy
¹⁶ INFN Sezione di Roma, 00185, Roma, Italy
¹⁷ Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia
¹⁸ Novosibirsk State University, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia
¹⁹ INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67100, Assergi (AQ), Italy
²⁰ INFN Cagliari, 09042, Cagliari, Italy
²¹ Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
²² Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Genova, 16146, Genova, Italy
²³ INFN Genova, 16146, Genova, Italy
²⁴ INFN Roma Tre, 00146, Roma, Italy
²⁵ Mathematics and Physics Department, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, 00146, Roma, Italy
²⁶ Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, 09042, Cagliari, Italy
²⁷ Institute for Particle Physics, ETH Zürich, 8093, Zürich, Switzerland
²⁸ Chemistry and Pharmacy Department, Università degli Studi di Sassari, 07100, Sassari, Italy
²⁹ INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, 95123, Catania, Italy
³⁰ Physics Department, Università degli Studi “Federico II” di Napoli, 80126, Napoli, Italy
³¹ INFN Napoli, 80126, Napoli, Italy
³² Virginia Tech, 24061, Blacksburg, VA, USA
³³ Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia
³⁴ INFN Torino, 10125, Torino, Italy
³⁵ Department of Mechanical, Chemical, and Materials Engineering, Università degli Studi, 09042, Cagliari, Italy
³⁶ LPNHE, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS/IN2P3, Sorbonne Universités, 75252, Paris, France
³⁷ Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering Department “G. Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, 20133, Milano, Italy
³⁸ INAF Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory, 80131, Napoli, Italy
³⁹ Interuniversity Consortium for Science and Technology of Materials, 50121, Firenze, Italy
⁴⁰ Saint Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, 188350, Gatchina, Russia
⁴¹ Physics Department, Princeton University, 08544, Princeton, NJ, USA
⁴² Physics Department, Sapienza Università di Roma, 00185, Roma, Italy
⁴³ TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, V6T2A3, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
⁴⁴ National Institute for R&D of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, 400293, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
⁴⁵ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980, Dubna, Russia
⁴⁶ APC, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/Irfu, Obs de Paris, USPC, 75205, Paris, France
⁴⁷ Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, P.O. Box 2208, 71003, Crete, Greece
⁴⁸ Physics Department, Temple University, 19122, Philadelphia, PA, USA
⁴⁹ National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, 123182, Moscow, Russia
⁵⁰ Institute of High Energy Physics, 100049, Beijing, China
⁵¹ School of Natural Sciences, Black Hills State University, 57799, Spearfish, SD, USA
⁵² Engineering and Architecture Faculty, Università di Enna Kore, 94100, Enna, Italy
⁵³ Department of Physics and Engineering, Fort Lewis College, 81301, Durango, CO, USA
⁵⁴ Department of Physics, University of California, 95616, Davis, CA, USA
⁵⁵ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, 60510, Batavia, IL, USA
⁵⁶ Radiation Physics Laboratory, Belgorod National Research University, 308007, Belgorod, Russia
⁵⁷ Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20133, Milano, Italy
⁵⁸ Energy Department, Politecnico di Milano, 20133, Milano, Italy
⁵⁹ Physics Institute, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083, Campinas, Brazil
⁶⁰ National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, 115409, Moscow, Russia
⁶¹ Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Trento, 38123, Povo, Italy
⁶² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 96822, Honolulu, HI, USA
⁶³ Department of Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London, TW20 0EX, Surrey, UK
⁶⁴ Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions and Physics Department, University of Massachusetts, 01003, Amherst, MA, USA
⁶⁵ Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology Department, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 06123, Perugia, Italy
⁶⁶ INFN Perugia, 06123, Perugia, Italy
⁶⁷ M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, 30-348, Krakow, Poland
⁶⁸ Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133, Milano, Italy
⁶⁹ Chemical, Materials, and Industrial Production Engineering Department, Università degli Studi “Federico II” di Napoli, 80126, Napoli, Italy
⁷⁰ Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California, 90095, Los Angeles, CA, USA
⁷¹ Department of Physics, Carleton University, K1S 5B6, Ottawa, ON, Canada
⁷² Department of Physics, University of Alberta, T6G 2R3, Edmonton, AB, Canada
⁷³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Laurentian University, P3E 2C6, Sudbury, ON, Canada
⁷⁴ SNOLAB, P3Y 1N2, Lively, ON, Canada
⁷⁵ Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, Queen’s University, K7L 3N6, Kingston, ON, Canada
⁷⁶ Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, BN1 9QH, Brighton, UK
⁷⁷ Physik Department, Technische Universität München, 80333, Munich, Germany
⁷⁸ Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), 01000, México, Mexico

^* e-mail: arenshaw@uh.edu

Received: 6 August 2017
Accepted: 23 February 2018
Published online: 29 March 2018

Abstract

Building on the successful experience in operating the DarkSide-50 detector, the DarkSide Collaboration is going to construct DarkSide-20k, a direct WIMP search detector using a two-phase Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr TPC) with an active (fiducial) mass of 23 t (20 t). This paper describes a preliminary design for the experiment, in which the DarkSide-20k LAr TPC is deployed within a shield/veto with a spherical Liquid Scintillator Veto (LSV) inside a cylindrical Water Cherenkov Veto (WCV). This preliminary design provides a baseline for the experiment to achieve its physics goals, while further development work will lead to the final optimization of the detector parameters and an eventual technical design. Operation of DarkSide-50 demonstrated a major reduction in the dominant ³⁹Ar background when using argon extracted from an underground source, before applying pulse shape analysis. Data from DarkSide-50, in combination with MC simulation and analytical modeling, shows that a rejection factor for discrimination between electron and nuclear recoils of is achievable. This, along with the use of the veto system and utilizing silicon photomultipliers in the LAr TPC, are the keys to unlocking the path to large LAr TPC detector masses, while maintaining an experiment in which less than events (other than -induced nuclear recoils) is expected to occur within the WIMP search region during the planned exposure. DarkSide-20k will have ultra-low backgrounds than can be measured in situ, giving sensitivity to WIMP-nucleon cross sections of cm² ( cm²) for WIMPs of 1 TeV/ ² (10 TeV/ ²) mass, to be achieved during a 5 yr run producing an exposure of 100 t yr free from any instrumental background.