The DEAP-3600 Experiment

Abstract

The DEAP-3600 experiment searches for dark matter via the interactions of WIMPs with a liquid argon target. The experiment is located at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Ontario, 2 km underground to shield the detector from cosmic rays. The detector consists of an acrylic sphere with an inner diameter of ∼170 cm containing ∼3300 kg of liquid argon. Liquid argon is chosen as a target due to its ability to reject electromagnetic backgrounds by examining its scintillation pulse shape. The argon volume is instrumented with 255 PMTs which are connected to the vessel via acrylic light guides. As liquid argon scintillates at a wavelength of 128 nm, its scintillation light needs to be shifted to a wavelength into a region where the PMTs are more sensitive; this is done by coating the inside of the acrylic vessel with TPB wavelength shifter, which re-emits the argon scintillation light at a wavelength of 420 nm. This talk will describe the current status of the experiment and some recent analyses performed by the collaboration. The status of planned upgrades to the detector and the plans for the future of the experiment will also be detailed.