The Oscura Experiment

Alexis Aguilar-Arevalo; Fabricio Alcalde Bessia; Nicolas Avalos; Daniel Baxter; Xavier Bertou; Carla Bonifazi; Ana Botti; Mariano Cababie; Gustavo Cancelo; Brenda Aurea Cervantes-Vergara; Nuria Castello-Mor; Alvaro Chavarria; Claudio R. Chavez; Fernando Chierchie; Juan Manuel De Egea; Juan Carlos D`Olivo; Cyrus E. Dreyer; Alex Drlica-Wagner; Rouven Essig; Juan Estrada; Ezequiel Estrada; Erez Etzion; Guillermo Fernandez-Moroni; Marivi Fernandez-Serra; Steve Holland; Agustin Lantero Barreda; Andrew Lathrop; Jose Lipovetzky; Ben Loer; Edgar Marrufo Villalpando; Jorge Molina; Santiago Perez; Paolo Privitera; Dario Rodrigues; Richard Saldanha; Diego Santa Cruz; Aman Singal; Nathan Saffold; Leandro Stefanazzi; Miguel Sofo-Haro; Javier Tiffenberg; Christian Torres; Sho Uemura; Rocio Vilar

arXiv · 2202.10518

The Oscura Experiment

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Abstract

The Oscura experiment will lead the search for low-mass dark matter particles using a very large array of novel silicon Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) with a threshold of two electrons and with a total exposure of 30 kg-yr. The R&D effort, which began in FY20, is currently entering the design phase with the goal of being ready to start construction in late 2024. Oscura will have unprecedented sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter particles that interact with electrons, probing dark matter-electron scattering for masses down to 500 keV and dark matter being absorbed by electrons for masses down to 1 eV. The Oscura R&D effort has made some significant progress on the main technical challenges of the experiment, of which the most significant are engaging new foundries for the fabrication of the CCD sensors, developing a cold readout solution, and understanding the experimental backgrounds.

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Alexis Aguilar-Arevalo, Fabricio Alcalde Bessia, Nicolas Avalos, Daniel Baxter, Xavier Bertou, Carla Bonifazi, Ana Botti, Mariano Cababie, Gustavo Cancelo, Brenda Aurea Cervantes-Vergara, Nuria Castello-Mor, Alvaro Chavarria, Claudio R. Chavez, Fernando Chierchie, Juan Manuel De Egea, Juan Carlos D`Olivo, Cyrus E. Dreyer, Alex Drlica-Wagner, Rouven Essig, Juan Estrada, Ezequiel Estrada, Erez Etzion, Guillermo Fernandez-Moroni, Marivi Fernandez-Serra, Steve Holland, Agustin Lantero Barreda, Andrew Lathrop, Jose Lipovetzky, Ben Loer, Edgar Marrufo Villalpando, Jorge Molina, Santiago Perez, Paolo Privitera, Dario Rodrigues, Richard Saldanha, Diego Santa Cruz, Aman Singal, Nathan Saffold, Leandro Stefanazzi, Miguel Sofo-Haro, Javier Tiffenberg, Christian Torres, Sho Uemura, Rocio Vilar. 2022-02-21. The Oscura Experiment. https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.10518

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