My group is involved in the construction, operation, upgrade,
cleanliness and analysis of the PICO-40L experiment. PICO-40L is a large
scale (~30l) bubble chamber that is aimed at finding dark matter
through interactions between WIMP particles and flourine. The chamber
is filled with about 53kg of C3F8, which is rich in flourine and is
superheated at room temperature.
Alberta postdocs and students are involved in the camera
system used to trigger the chamber, they are working on the
commissioning and data analysis of the images and acoustic waveform
traces from the bubble chamber. Our group playes a large role in the assembly
and operation of the chamber and we play important roles in the analysis
of the data taken so far.
Now that PICO-40L is running, we can also fucus on the construction of the PICO-500 experiment that will be build in the large cube hall experimental area of SNOLAB in 2021 and 2022. The Alberta group will again contribute the camera and data acquistion system, the thermal controls and systems and large fraction of the mechanical components of the inner detector. We are also responsible for the detector cleanliness, for which we have developed all the methods used on the previous PICO dark matter experiments.
To find out more about PICO please visit the websites listed below. If you are interested in the physics of dark matter and PICO in particular and want to find out about graduate opportunities, please contact me directly by e-mail.