tarting in 2016, the DEAP-3600 experiment (SNOLAB, Sudbury), led by Mark Boulay, began searching for particles of mysterious dark matter that pervades the universe. With this detector, the sensitivity for this kind of measurement will be improved by 20 times. This may enable a discovery, which for the first time would let researchers see the 80 per cent of matter in the universe that so far has remained invisible. Boulay’s research will use the DEAP-3600 detector and a facility developed at Carleton to pursue the development of next-generation experiments, allowing leading-edge materials and detector characterization, and development of ultra-low background techniques.

Carleton physicist Mark Boulay inspects the spherical acrylic vessel containing 3.6 tonnes of liquid argon: the core of the DEAP-3600 experiment