Abstract
DarkSide ran since mid 2015 a 50-kg-active-mass dual-phase Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (TPC), filled with low-radioactivity argon from an underground source and produced world class results for both the low mass ( M$_{WIMP}$ below 20 GeV/c$^2$) and high mass (M$_{WIMP}$ above 100 GeV/c$^2$) direct detection search for dark matter. The next stage of the DarkSide program will be a new generation experiment, called \textit{DarkSide-20k}, involving a global collaboration formed by members of the main current argon-based experiments. \textit{DarkSide-20k}, is designed as a 20-tonne fiducial mass dual-phase Liquid Argon TPC with SiPM-based cryogenic photosensors, and is expected to be free of any instrumental background for an exposure of >100 t $\cdot$ yr. Like its predecessor, \textit{DarkSide-20k} will be housed at the INFN Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS), and it is expected to attain a WIMP-nucleon cross section 90\% C.L. exclusion sensitivity of 7.4×10$^{-48}$cm$^2$ for a WIMP mass of 1 TeV/c$^2$ in a 200 t $\cdot$ yr run. \textit{DarkSide-20k} will be installed inside a membrane cryostat containing more than 700 t of liquid argon, and be surrounded by an active neutron veto based on a Gd-loaded acrylic shell. The article will give the latest updates of the ongoing R\&D and prototype tests validating the initial design. A subsequent objective, towards the end of the next decade, will be the construction of the ultimate detector with a 300 t fiducial mass, Argo, to push the sensitivity to the neutrino floor region for high-mass WIMPs.
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