Direct dark matter search with the CRESST-III experiment - status and perspectives

Abstract

The CRESST-III experiment, located in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS, Italy), aims at the direct detection of dark matter (DM) particles. Scintillating CaWO4 crystals operated as cryogenic detectors are used as target material for DM-nucleus scattering. The simultaneous measurement of the phonon signal from the CaWO4 crystal and of the emitted scintillation light in a separate cryogenic light detector is used to discriminate backgrounds from a possible dark matter signal. The experiment aims to significantly improve the sensitivity for low-mass ( 5-10 GeV/c2) DM particles by using optimized detector modules with a nuclear recoil-energy threshold 100 eV. The current status of the experiment as well as projections of the sensitivity for spin-independent DM-nucleon scattering will be presented.