Speaker
Description
The particle nature of dark matter remains a key unanswered questions in modern physics, despite it making up the majority of matter in the universe. The NEWS-G collaboration is searching for light dark matter candidates using a gaseous detector, the spherical proportional counter. The use of light gaseous targets, including H, He, Ne, etc., combined with a low energy threshold, enable access to the mass range from 0.05 to 10 GeV. The detector’s simple design also facilitates radio-pure detector construction. The collaboration currently operates a 140$\;$cm in diameter detector, constructed at the Modane Underground Laboratory (LSM) using 4N copper with 500 $\mu\text{m}$ electroplated inner layer. The first direct dark matter search with this detector using a methane target will be presented, as will ongoing searches performed at SNOLAB. The potential to achieve sensitivity reaching the neutrino floor in light dark matter searches with a next generation, fully underground electroformed detector, DarkSPHERE, situated in the Boulby Underground Laboratory, will also be presented. Current efforts underway towards DarkSPHERE will be discussed, for example, establishing a high-purity copper electroforming facility in Boulby.
