We're still looking for
dark matter as
some sort of
fundamental particle.
In order to probe
dark matter, we can't just
use conventional telescopes;
we need to
develop some kind
of technology that's
able to sense
the particles even though
they are very, very,
very weakly interacting.
Here at Brown
we've had a
team of undergraduates,
graduates, and
postdocs working
full-time on this
for the last couple of years.
The detector we've been
working on here at Brown
will allow us to
dramatically improve sensitivity
when looking for
these dark matter particles.
The tricky part about
building a dark matter
detector like we are, building
the leading experiment
in the world, is you
have to push into
regions where
even the smallest things
that you wouldn't
normally care about
become big problems.
The air that we're
breathing right now
is filled with tiny
little particles.
All of that dust has natural
radioactivity in it
and it's that
natural radioactivity
that could
actually act as
a major contaminant
so we have to build
every single one of the
components that
we have in very, very
rigorously controlled
spaces because
otherwise it could
actually create
signals that
are difficult to
distinguish from
dark matter itself.
The final assembly itself,
the sort of
unification of all
these separate parts,
is going to take place at the
underground lab,
Sanford lab, which is
in South Dakota
where it will be
delivered to our experiment
and installed at the bottom
of our TPC
within the next
coming months.
We know a lot
about conventional matter.
But conventional matter is a tiny --
less than 5% of the total
composition of the universe.
One of the sort of
extraordinary aspects
for instance of a
graduate student
who's doing the research
in the team like mine is,
of course,
they have to become
the world's leading expert
in their area of research.
And that's just what they've done.
You have students that are
early twenties and they do
know more about this aspect
of particle physics
experiment than anybody else.
It's the only way you
can actually get a
world-leading experiment,
is every person
that is working
directly on it knows
more than anybody else
in the world
about the subject.
That's how you get it right.
The thing about physics is
you never really know
exactly what these
discoveries could result in.
we just do it
because we're interested
because we want to know
and because there's
plenty of stuff out there and
I don't think
we'll ever really reach
the bottom of it,
but we have to keep trying.
