Abstract:

Precision cosmology tells us that most of the matter in the universe is dark, non-baryonic and non-relativistic. Whatever makes up this dark matter must lie outside the standard model of particle physics. The leading candidate for the dark matter is an undiscovered, stable Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) which, if it is the dark matter, will deposit energy in terrestrial detectors via elastic scattering on atomic nuclei. The COUPP Collaboration uses bubble chambers to search for this elusive signal, and in the summer of 2010 deployed a 4kg bubble chamber 6800' below ground at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Ontario. I will present results from our first year of data with this detector, including the world-leading limit on the spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross section. With an ongoing campaign that will increase our WIMP sensitivity by an order of magnitude each year, COUPP may soon lead the field across the board in the hunt for WIMP dark matter and, if WIMPs exist, could make the first detection of particles outside the standard model.