This proposal is from a group at Occidental College and requests funding to investigate one of the most important questions of the 21st century: What is the Dark Matter? A natural explanation is a population of relic Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) left over from the Big Bang. To directly detect WIMPs by their interaction inside a detector yielding a ~keV/amu recoil nucleus, the PIs have invented the Negative Ion Time Projection Chamber (NITPC) and have built a first generation device, the Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks detector (DRIFT-I) with an active volume of 1 m3 and an active mass of 167 g. DRIFT-I is currently taking data at the Boulby mine in Northeast England. The plan now is to build a scaled-up, much improved NITPC, called DRIFT-II, as a fully modular detector which could be scaled-up to ~100 kg active mass. The technique uses a low pressure, electronegative gas (CS2) target and is sensitive to the direction of neutron recoils.
In the education/outreach area, the DRIFT detector technology has promising applications to Homeland Security and for tracking at the Next Linear Collider. The project has already brought people from underrepresented groups into cutting edge research.
