Award Abstract # 0542066
CAREER: Search for Dark Matter and Mentoring Female Physics Students

NSF Org: PHY
Division Of Physics
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Initial Amendment Date: November 29, 2005
Latest Amendment Date: June 27, 2006
Award Number: 0542066
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Jonathan Whitmore
PHY
 Division Of Physics
MPS
 Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Start Date: January 1, 2006
End Date: December 31, 2006 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $600,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $67,400.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2006 = $67,400.00
History of Investigator:
  • Laura Baudis (Principal Investigator)
    lbaudis@ufl.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Florida
1523 UNION RD RM 207
GAINESVILLE
FL  US  32611-1941
(352)392-3516
Sponsor Congressional District: 03
Primary Place of Performance: University of Florida
1523 UNION RD RM 207
GAINESVILLE
FL  US  32611-1941
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
03
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): NNFQH1JAPEP3
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Particle Astrophysics/Cosmic P
Primary Program Source: app-0106 
app-0107 

01000809DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001011DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 0000, 1045, OTHR
Program Element Code(s): 164300
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.049

ABSTRACT

The goal of the proposed research and education is to search for dark matter particles
in the halo of our galaxy, and to increase the number of female physics students at the
University of Florida (UF). The motivation for the search for dark matter comes from our
current understanding of the universe. Over the last ten years, a variety of cosmological
observations have led to the construction of a concordance model of cosmology. In this very
successful model, the universe is made of 4% baryons, which constitute the ordinary matter,
23% nonbaryonic dark matter, which formed all the structures observed today, and 73%
dark energy, a smooth component revealed by its effect on the geometry of the universe.
Understanding the nature of the dark matter and dark energy are the most important
challenges to cosmology. The dark matter could be made of so-called Weakly Interacting
Massive Particles (WIMPs), which could have been produced in a very early phase of the
universe. These Big Bang relics are particularly interesting because they are also predicted
in particle physics theories going beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. They
can be detected in the laboratory by searching for nuclear recoils produced when WIMPs
scatter off nuclei in a target detector. Because the predicted event rates are very low
(smaller than one event per kg detector material and day), and the deposited energies
are tiny, massive, ultra-low background experiments are needed in order to detect these
hypothetical particles. Liquid xenon has many advantages as a dark matter detector. The
high-density and high atomic number allow to build a compact and self-shielded detector,
while the simultaneous measurement of the charge and light signal after a WIMP scatters
off a Xe-nucleus provides an efficient method to discriminate against background noise from
natural radioactivity and cosmic ray interactions. The proposed research has the ultimate
goal of building a large liquid Xe dark matter experiment in an underground laboratory.
A first, 10 kg liquid Xe dark matter prototype has been approved and will be installed at
the Gran Sasso Laboratory in 2006. At the University of Florida, we have built a smaller,
3 kg prototype, with the goal of calibrating the light and charge output of the detector and
establishing its discrimination power at low energies by using a neutron beam at the UF
tandem accelerator.

The main focus of the educational part of the proposal is to mentor female students in
bridging the transition from high school to college and from college to a PhD program on
physics. A series of talks will be given at local high schools with the goal of recruiting female
students to UF and to a yearly 7 week summer program in which they are actively involved
in research in a physics lab. A mentoring program for female undergraduate and graduate
students at UF will be established. It will be organized both as small-group tutoring, by
pairing one undergraduate and one graduate student and having them meet regularly, as
well as in large group activities, such as monthly meetings with a female professor from
UF or abroad, and social events. Such meetings, along with office hours for female physics
students have been offered since fall 2004, and so far were very well attended. The ultimate
goal of the educational component will be to increase the number of women who obtain an
advanced degree in physics, and who will continue to have a successful career in science.

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