PhD on direct dark matter search with the DarkSide-20k liquid argon Time Projection Chamber (M/F)

Updated: 12 days ago
Location: Paris 13, LE DE FRANCE
Job Type: FullTime
Deadline: 31 May 2024

11 May 2024
Job Information
Organisation/Company

CNRS
Department

Astroparticule et Cosmologie
Research Field

Physics
Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)
Country

France
Application Deadline

31 May 2024 - 23:59 (UTC)
Type of Contract

Temporary
Job Status

Full-time
Hours Per Week

35
Offer Starting Date

1 Oct 2024
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme
Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

The work site will be the APC laboratory (Paris), where the successful candidate will join the DarkSide team, which coordinates data reconstruction, simulation, and sensitivity studies for the DarkSide-20k Collaboration. In particular, the APC team led the recent data analyses using the 50-kg LAr DarkSide-50 experiment, which have recently improved existing limits on interactions of <4-GeV/c2 mass WIMPs, and has developed a highly optimized python-based data reconstruction framework for DarkSide-20k.

Dark Matter is one of the main puzzles in fundamental physics and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) are among the best-motivated dark matter particle candidates. As of today, the most sensitive experimental technique to discover the WIMPs in the mass range from 1 GeV/c2 to 10 TeV/c2 is the dual phase Time Projection Chamber (TPC) filled with noble liquids. The “dual-phase” approach has the main advantage to provide simultaneous access to the ionization and to the scintillation signals. This enables accurate reconstruction of the event topology and powerful discrimination between electronic and nuclear recoils, the latter being the signal expected from WIMP dark matter candidates. These features, together with the scalability to massive detectors, make liquid argon (LAr) a compelling target for WIMPs of mass >20 GeV/c2.

LAr can further extend its physics potential by looking at the ionization channel only, dropping the scintillation one. Indeed, the efficiency of detecting a single ionization electron is much higher than that of a scintillation photon. The price is the loss of particle identification based on the scintillation pulse shape, but the gain is in the detection threshold. Such a low threshold opens up many opportunities enabling the search for very light candidates of WIMPs (10 MeV/c2 - 1 GeV/c2 mass range), sterile neutrinos, and axions. Moreover, that energy region is sensitive to neutrino interactions via coherent elastic scattering with nuclei, a reaction characterized by the highest cross section for MeV-range neutrinos, such as from the Sun and galactic and extragalactic core-collapse supernovae.

The PhD candidate will focus his/her work on extending the DarkSide-20k physics potential to "light" signals, id est those induced by light dark matter particles (low-mass WIMPs, sterile neutrinos, dark photons, and axions) and by core-collapse supernova neutrinos. He/she will import signal models already coded for the DarkSide-50 analyses into the DarkSide-20k framework and investigate the background components affecting the low energy region with Monte Carlo simulation. At the same time, the candidate will model the LAr ionization and detector responses to nuclear and electronic recoils in the keV range.


Requirements
Research Field
Physics
Education Level
Master Degree or equivalent

Languages
FRENCH
Level
Basic

Research Field
Physics
Years of Research Experience
None

Additional Information
Website for additional job details

https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR7164-DAVFRA-013/Default.aspx

Work Location(s)
Number of offers available
1
Company/Institute
Astroparticule et Cosmologie
Country
France
City
PARIS 13
Geofield


Where to apply
Website

https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Candidat/Offre/UMR7164-DAVFRA-013/Candidater.aspx

Contact
City

PARIS 13
Website

http://www.apc.univ-paris7.fr/APC_CS/

STATUS: EXPIRED

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