Abstract

The nature of dark matter is one of the fundamental questions in physics today. A number of experiments have recently claimed to detect dark matter interactions, via both direct and indirect experimental methods, although none are yet independently confirmed. The DEAP/CLEAN collaboration is developing a single-phase liquid argon detector, instrumented with photomultiplier tubes to observe scintillation light from dark matter scatters in the detector. This design strategy emphasizes scalability to target masses of order 10 tons or more. This talk will review recent results, describe the experimental technique and status of DEAP/CLEAN, and discuss strategies for conclusively identifying a signal in direct dark matter detection searches.