Status of the DAMIC direct dark matter search experiment

TL;DR

The DAMIC experiment employs advanced CCD technology to detect low-mass WIMPs with high sensitivity, progressing towards a larger detector at SNOLAB to improve dark matter search capabilities.

Contribution

This paper reports on the current status, calibration efforts, and preliminary results of the DAMIC experiment, highlighting its potential for detecting low-mass dark matter particles.

Findings

Preliminary results from 2014 data analysis.

Progress in installing the 100 g DAMIC100 detector.

Enhanced calibration techniques near the energy threshold.

Abstract

The DAMIC experiment uses fully depleted, high resistivity CCDs to search for dark matter particles. With an energy threshold $\sim$50 eV$_{ee}$, and excellent energy and spatial resolutions, the DAMIC CCDs are well-suited to identify and suppress radioactive backgrounds, having an unrivaled sensitivity to WIMPs with masses $<$6 GeV/$c^2$. Early results motivated the construction of a 100 g detector, DAMIC100, currently being installed at SNOLAB. This contribution discusses the installation progress, new calibration efforts near the threshold, a preliminary result with 2014 data, and the prospects for physics results after one year of data taking.