Small But Mighty: TESSERACT Joins the Hunt for Dark Matter

The heart of TESSERACT is its transition-edge sensors, but researchers are also developing additional detector modules that improve their odds of spotting dark matter. HeRALD (Helium Roton Apparatus for Light Dark matter) will be the first time that a dark matter experiment uses superfluid helium, and will incorporate TESSERACT’s silicon chips as the detector’s sensors. SPICE (Sub-ev Polar Interactions Cryogenic Experiment) will use single crystals of sapphire and gallium arsenide. And the science teams in France will contribute a sensor made of silicon and germanium. The different modules will give researchers unique ways to search for dark matter and test different theories.

The shielding that will surround the experiment is designed to come apart, making it possible for researchers to easily access TESSERACT’s components and switch things out in a matter of days. If HeRALD sees intriguing signs of dark matter, scientists can swap in SPICE and cross-check the result (or vice versa). In contrast, many advanced dark matter experiments are built like a ship in a bottle; it would take them months or years to open up and swap components, if it could be done at all.

Researchers are currently continuing to develop HeRALD and SPICE and testing new manufacturing processes to further improve the transition-edge sensors. “To get TESSERACT to the sensitivity we want, these detectors have to get even better, even though they’re already the best in the world,” Williams said.

Improved detectors and a subterranean home will let the experiment search for lower mass particles and increase the chance of detecting ultra-rare dark matter interactions with regular matter.

“This result is the first indication that we can open up this new regime of low-mass dark matter to experimental testing,” McKinsey said. “It’s a lot of fun to have a small experiment running in the basement that can test new ideas for dark matter. This is really just the opening salvo for TESSERACT. We expect to have many more results over the next decade.”

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