Speaker
Description
CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) is a dark matter experiment located at the Gran Sasso (LNGS) underground laboratory in Italy. It uses cryogenic detectors (temperature O(mK)) equipped with Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) to directly search for dark matter in the sub-GeV mass range. The extremely low threshold and high energy resolution achieved confirm CRESST as one of the world's leading sub-GeV dark matter experiments. However, the experiment's sensitivity is affected by an increasing event rate at low energies (below 200eV), the origin of which is still unclear. Several possibilities have already been ruled out, and studies of new detector designs are being developed to gain a deeper understanding of the observations. An overview of the experiment is presented with a focus on the latest detector designs and future projects.
