Title: Backgrounds and performance of future large-scale dark matter detectors

Location: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK (about 2 years); one of the universities/laboratories associated with ILIAS in Germany or France (about 1 year).

Supervisor: Dr. Vitaly Kudryavtsev (University of Sheffield).

Duration: 3 years

Expected starting date: 1 April 2006 (later date is possible).

Description:This project is funded through the Integrated Infrastructure Initiative in Astroparticle Physics in Europe - ILIAS (Integrated Large Infrastructures for Astroparticle Science) and is connected to one of the ILIAS acitivities - Direct Dark Matter Detection.

The objectives of this project are:

1. To estimate the backgrounds in future large-scale dark matter detectors based on various technological ideas.
2. To study the performance of the different techniques and the sensitivity of large-scale detectors to WIMP dark matter.

These goals will be achieved through the extensive simulation work, participation in the detector design, construction, operation and data analysis.

The student will be working in the Particle Physics and Particle Astrophysics (PPPA) group at the University of Sheffield in close cooperation with other groups involved in the ILIAS activities, such as University of Oxford (UK), Imperial College London (UK), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK), DAPNIA/SPP-Saclay (France), LSM-Modane (France), IN2P3-Lyon (France), University of Tuebingen (Germany), Technical University of Munich (Germany) and others. One of the requirement for this studentship is to work for about a year in one of the universities/laboratories associated with ILIAS in Germany or France.

Members of the PPPA group at the University of Sheffield, DAPNIA/SPP (France), University of Tuebingen and other institutions are well recognised in their field of research. They are running several detectors for direct dark matter searches (EDELWEISS, CRESST, ZEPLIN, DRIFT) and are planning to move to large-scale (about one tonne) detectors able to probe most of the region of the neutralino parameter space favoured by SUSY models. The student is expected to contribute to these efforts. The student is expected to have a good knowledge of particle physics and/or particle astrophysics, programming skills (knowledge of C++ is preferred) and an enthousiasm to work in a large collaboration of world-class physicists.He/she will be travelling to the meetings and reporting the progress of the work.

All nationals are encouraged to apply, however, EU nationals will be given priority.

Contact person: Dr. Vitaly Kudryavtsev (v.kudryavtsev@sheffield.ac.uk).

To apply, visit the University of Sheffield web-site.

Please, send also a copy of your application form by e-mail to v.kudryavtsev@sheffield.ac.uk

or by post to

Dr. Vitaly Kudryavtsev
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S3 7RH
United Kingdom

The deadline for applications is 15 January 2006 but this is not strict and the selection process will continue until a suitable candidate is found.