Construction and tests of a detector for dark photons

• Grant number: 24/04813-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Nelson Carlin Filho
• Grantee: Pedro Gabriel Kiss Galera
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The existence of dark matter has been a well-known fact for several decades, established and accepted by the scientific community, due to its clear influence on gravitational interactions in the universe, which have been observed since Fritz Zwickydetected a discrepancy in indirect measurements of the gravity and amount of mass of theComa cluster. However, gravitational observations are not sufficient for determination of the nature of dark matter, this being one of the great paradigms of modern physics. Thus, it is necessary to consider the possibility of different non-gravitational interactions between dark matter and ordinary matter (standard model - SM).The aim is to investigate the existence of dark photons, hypothetical particles of the so-calledhidden sector (HS), which would act as mediators of interactions with the standard model. Therefore, the objective of this project is to build a detector multi-cathode for the detection of dark photons, exploiting a possible axio-electric effect in metals, where the photon signal would be found detecting events generated bysingle electrons. Within the research group, this specific work has the function designed to handle data from initial testing of background signals, testing with a radioactive iron-55, determination of ideal voltages and separation of signals from single electrons.