Particle Physics Division

The new generation of detectors from the Edelweiss experiment, which is searching for dark matter, have just delivered their first results.  Remarkably reliable and robust, they have proved excellent at removing interference signals. Although only just installed and not yet perfected, these new detectors have improved the experiment's sensitivity by a factor of 10 in terms of its capacity to measure an interaction with a "wimp"¹ , a weakly interacting massive particle, which is one of the candidates for dark matter. 

 Article submitted to Phys Lett. B (online)

In 2010 the usable mass of detectors will be tripled in order to improve their discovery potential still further.

This jump in sensitivity puts this experiment in amongst the leading group of experiments worldwide that are seeking to detect these new particles. These first results have just been submitted for publication in the journal Physics Letters B