Aachen 2019 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 54: Direkte Suche nach Dunkler Materie III

T 54.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 17:10–17:25, H09

Modelling backgrounds for the CRESST experiment — •Holger Kluck for the CRESST collaboration — Institut für Hochenergiephysik der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1050 Wien, Österreich — Atominstitut, Technische Universität Wien, 1020 Wien, Österreich

CRESST searches directly for dark matter (DM) with CaWO₄ crystals operated as cryogenic calorimeters. It established leading limits for the spin-independent DM-nucleon scattering cross-section down to DM-particle masses of 350 MeV/c². At this mass regime, the rejection power against electromagnetic background starts to degrade. The background in the region of interest is mainly caused by β and γ decays of radioactive contaminations in the CaWO₄ crystals and their Cu surrounding. To gain a reliable understanding of these background components a detailed Geant4 simulation code was developed.

In this contribution we present the final model of electromagnetic backgrounds for CRESST-II phase 2. We discuss ongoing modifications to adapt this model for the current CRESST-III phase 1 and to improve its accuracy. Finally, we show preliminary simulations of the cosmic activation of CaWO₄.