Abstract
COSINUS (Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next-generation Underground Searches) is an experiment employing cryogenic calorimeters, dedicated to direct dark matter search in underground laboratories. Its goal is to cross-check the annual modulation signal the DAMA collaboration has been detecting for about 20 years (Bernabei et al. in Nucl Part Phys Proc 303–305:74–79, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2019.03.015) and which has been ruled out by other experiments in certain dark matter scenarios. COSINUS can provide a model-independent test by the use of the same target material (NaI), with the additional chance of discriminating beta /gamma events from nuclear recoils on an event-by-event basis, by the application of a well-established temperature sensor technology developed within the CRESST collaboration. Each module is constituted by two detectors: the light detector, that is a silicon beaker equipped with a transition edge sensor (TES), and the phonon detector, a small cubic NaI crystal interfaced with a carrier of a harder material (e.g. hbox {CdWO}_4), also instrumented with a TES. This technology had so far never been applied to NaI crystals because of several well-known obstacles, and COSINUS is the first experiment which succeeded in operating NaI crystals as cryogenic calorimeters. Here, we present the COSINUS project, describe the achievements and the challenges of the COSINUS prototype development and discuss the status and the perspectives of this NaI-based cryogenic frontier.
Highlights
During the twentieth century, collecting experimental data to make predictions on a cosmological level has become possible, but one of the most powerful tools to probe the Universe
The challenging phonon-threshold optimisation is attributed to the vibrational properties of NaI, which require an accurate choice of the temperature sensor (e.g. transition edge sensor (TES)/NTD and geometry) and of the general detector design
COSINUS will provide a model-independent cross-check of the DAMA/LIBRA results
Summary
During the twentieth century, collecting experimental data to make predictions on a cosmological level has become possible, but one of the most powerful tools to probe the Universe. Cosmology and astrophysics provide evidence for the existence of an additional form of matter, whose density is five times larger than that of ordinary matter. This new component of matter is invisible and its nature is unknown; that is why it is called dark matter (DM). Some excesses have been interpreted as positive detection, often not confirmed by the following experimental run This is not the case for the statistically robust result from the DAMA/LIBRA experiment, which has been detecting for about 20 years a signal which is compatible with DM in our galaxy [1]. COSINUS, which employs cryogenic calorimeter working at milli-Kelvin temperature, will provide a cross-check of the DAMA/LIBRA results using the same target material to exclude possible material-dependent effects [2] and will give a decisive answer to this long-standing debate [3,4,5]
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