Present status of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) experiment

Abstract The CDMS experiment utilizes Ge and Si detectors operating at 20 mK to search for the Dark Matter of the Universe hypothesized to exist in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). In early 2000, CDMS set the most competitive exclusion limit for scalar-interaction WIMPs in the Stanford Underground Facility (SUF). A new search (CDMS II) is now commencing with several improvements: a deep-site facility in the Soudan mine, Minnesota; and the detector technology has been further improved to aid in the rejection of surface-electron ( β ) events. A new generation of detectors, sensitive to the initial athermal phonon flux from a particle event, have been in operation for the past year at Stanford's shallow site and are ready for installation at the deep site.