Title       : CDMS II: A Search for Cold Dark Matter with Cryogenic Detectors at the Soudan
               Mine
Type        : Award
NSF Org     : AST 
Latest
Amendment
Date        : January 28,  2004   
File        : a9978911

Award Number: 9978911
Award Instr.: Continuing grant                             
Prgm Manager: Vernon Pankonin                         
	      AST  DIVISION OF ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCES       
	      MPS  DIRECT FOR MATHEMATICAL & PHYSICAL SCIEN
Start Date  : January 1,  2000    
Expires     : December 31,  2005   (Estimated)
Expected
Total Amt.  : $8802704            (Estimated)
Investigator: Bernard Sadoulet sadoulet@cfpa.berkeley.edu  (Principal Investigator current)
Sponsor     : U of Cal Berkeley
	      
	      Berkeley, CA  94720    510/642-6000

NSF Program : 1295      PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS
Fld Applictn: 
Program Ref : 0000,OTHR,
Abstract    :

     Abstract AST 9978911


     In the last decade considerable additional
     evidence has been gathered supporting the hypothesis that at least 90% of the
     mass in the universe is dark: it does not emit or absorb any form of
     electromagnetic radiation.  Understanding this dark matter has become one of
     the more central problems in astronomy and cosmology.  A number of observations
     indicate that the predominant form of the dark matter is nonbaryonic,
     presumably in the form of elementary particles produced in the early universe. 
     Weakly Interactive Massive Particles form a particularly interesting generic
     class of candidates as there appears to be a convergence between cosmology and
     particle physics. The direct observation of the interaction of WIMPs in a
     terrestrial detector would be of tremendous importance to particle physics and
     cosmology.  The observed WIMPs would be particles that reflect physics beyond
     the Standard Model of strong and electroweak interactions, and the
     identification of these WIMPs would solve the central problem of dark matter
     and help us understand the evolution of the early universe and the formation of
     structure.

     Because of a long development effort funded both by the
     National Science Foundation (through the Center for Particle Astrophysics) and
     the Department Of Energy, the sensor technology exists to provide a great step
     forward in this type of search, giving the best change for a positive result. 
     The simultaneous measurement of the phonons and the ionization produced by the
     WIMP interactions provides a powerful discrimination against radioactive
     background, and this technique is now being utilized at Stanford, in the
     Cryogenic Dark Matter Search Experiment (CDMS I).

     This award, which is
     being supportred jointly by the Division of Astronomical Sciences, the Division
     of Physics, and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities,  will support
     construction and operation of a second generation experiment (CDMS II) at a
     deep site in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota.