Searching for dark matter with bubble chambers Andrew Sonnenschein, Fermilab

Searches for dark matter particles are expected to dramatically improve in sensitivity over the next decade. One of the new techniques is a revival of the bubble chamber, an instrument previously thought to be obsolete. The conventional bubble chambers responsible for discoveries in particle physics from the 1950’s-80's would be unsuitable for detection of Weakly Interacting Massive dark matter Particles (WIMPs), due to instabilities and high backgrounds. However, these problems can be overcome with alternative designs. Small prototype chambers have already achieved interesting sensitivity and much larger, enormously more sensitive ones should be coming soon.