Edelweiss-II
Edelweiss-II home page
The Edelweiss experiment is dedicated to the direct detection of dark matter particles with bolometric detectors located at the underground laboratory of Modane (the LSM). The stage II of this experiment is currently taking data. On this Web site you will find the following sections:- Some presentations of the experiment, from a wide-audience introduction to a more technical documentation.
- A list of our financing institutions as well as of the collaboration members and the staff in contact with the collaboration.
- All our publications: refereed articles, conference proceedings, theses...
- Some links.
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| ID germanium bolometer | Bolometer towers being installed | The cryostat and shieldings |
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December 2009 - CDMS and Edelweiss results : status and what can be hoped for in 2010
The CDMS collaboration, from an effective exposure of 194 kg.d, has observed two events statistically consistent with an expected background of about one event for this experiment. While the presence of a signal is not excluded, this result calls for larger statistics, reduction of background level and assessment of background estimates to identify unambiguously a WIMP signal.The EDELWEISS collaboration (gathering 60 collaborators, originating from France, Germany, Russia and United Kingdom), with a slightly lower effective exposure of 144 kg.d, has recently demonstrated (arXiv link) that its detectors have the qualities needed to explore the sensitivity domain reached by CDMS and significantly beyond. The presence of a single event just above 20 keV in the region of signal can be assigned, at the present stage of the analysis, to a WIMP signal or a background interaction.
EDELWEISS benefits from a deep underground laboratory, on the border between France and Italy, with a reduction in the cosmic-ray background reduced by a factor 30 relative to the Soudan site where the CDMS experiment is presently set.
The continuation of the present run should result in Spring 2010 in a doubling of the present sensitivity. In addition, an analysis of low energy region below 20 keV together with systematic studies to determine with precision the expected background will be performed and should bring more insight into this newly explored region of sensitivity.
By summer 2010, new detectors will be installed, which might allow to identify unambiguously a possible signal, or pursue a deeper exploration of even more elusive WIMPs.
December 2009 - First WIMP search with "Interdigit" detectors
A first WIMP search using 6 months of data taken with 10 ID bolometers was carried out. Results are presented on arXiv. They represent an improvment of more than an order of magnitude with respect to previous EDELWEISS-I results. Data taking are continuing in order to improve the statistics.Spring 2009 - First results on "Interdigit" detectors
While a background physics data taking is going on with around ten Interdigit detectors, the performance of theses sensors, obtained during 2008 data takings, were published in Physics Letters B (link on arXiv).
Edelweiss-II: Press releases, podcasts...
- Seminar at APC laboratory on Edelweiss new results (11 February 2010)
- Podcast of the general public journal Ciel et Espace "Wimps: les fantômes sous la montagne" - 60 min in three parts (April 2008)
- Article on Futura-science: La traque aux Wimps est lancée (2006)
- CNRS-CEA press release (March 2006): "Les premiers pas d'EDELWEISS-II pour détecter la matière noire"
- Le Monde (avril 2006): "Des Particules cosmiques sont recherchées sous Terre"
- Terra Modana (avril 2006): "Le laboratoire Souterrain de Modane traque la matière obscure de l'univers"(1-2)