Jonathan Glicoes with Dan Akerib & Richard Schnee

Investigation of Background Rejection in the Search for Dark Matter

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment seeks to demonstrate the existence of dark matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS). In order to attempt to distinguish potential WIMPS from other particle interactions a stacked array of transition edge phonon sensors operating at 10-50 mK are utilized. Due to the nature and sensitivity of these detectors they are highly susceptible to background noise from latent radiation and high energy perturbations from gamma rays. The goal of this project is to characterize these background signals utilizing calibration data so that better analysis techniques may be utilized to increase the expected signal to noise ratio of the CDMS experiment.