Dark Matter Experiment Reaches Ultracold Milestone

Northwestern University researchers play key role in calibrating detectors for dark matter search at SNOLAB

Mar. 18, 2026 at 3:52am

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An international collaboration, including researchers from Northwestern University, has reached a critical milestone in the search for dark matter by cooling the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) experiment at SNOLAB in Canada to its operating temperature of just thousandths of a degree above absolute zero. This extreme cold will enable the experiment to isolate dark matter's incredibly tiny signals and begin the search for low-mass dark matter particles.

Why it matters

Detecting dark matter would not only reveal the identity of most of the mass of the universe, but it would also likely be the key to a new realm of particle physics. The SuperCDMS experiment is designed to detect light dark matter particles, a category that has so far evaded direct detection due to their incredibly weak interactions with ordinary matter.

The details

With the experiment now cooled to its operating temperature, the researchers can turn on the dark matter detectors, whose superconducting sensors only function when cooled to extremely low temperatures. The detectors employ ultra-pure silicon and germanium crystals equipped with these sensors, which should be able to detect the tiny vibrations and electrical signals produced if a dark matter particle collides with the crystals.

  • The SuperCDMS experiment is located 2 kilometers below ground in Canada at the SNOLAB facility.
  • The experiment has now reached its operating temperature, which is just thousandths of a degree above absolute zero - about 100 times colder than the temperature of deep space.

The players

Enectali Figueroa-Feliciano

A professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the lead for Northwestern's involvement in the SuperCDMS collaboration.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

The lead institution for the overall SuperCDMS collaboration, which comprises 24 institutions.

Northwestern Experimental Underground Site (NEXUS)

A facility located 106 meters below Fermilab that is used by Northwestern and Fermilab researchers to measure how the SuperCDMS detectors respond to known particle interactions, which is essential for interpreting the dark matter search data.

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What they’re saying

“Reaching this ultracold temperature means our experiment has crossed a major threshold. The detectors are now cold enough to operate, so we can begin calibrating them to prepare for the first search for dark matter. Detecting dark matter would not only reveal the identity of most of the mass of the universe, and it would likely be the key to a new realm of particle physics.”

— Enectali Figueroa-Feliciano, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University

“With many more sensors per detector than in the previous SuperCDMS Soudan experiment (in Minnesota), along with new simulation tools and AI-enabled reconstruction, the data will be far richer than we originally planned. Every day will be new; this is new science from day one.”

— Noah Kurinsky, Scientist, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

What’s next

With the experiment now cooled to its operating temperature, the researchers can turn on the dark matter detectors and begin calibrating them to prepare for the first search for dark matter particles.

The takeaway

The successful cooling of the SuperCDMS experiment to its ultracold operating temperature is a major milestone in the search for dark matter, which makes up the majority of the universe's mass but has so far evaded direct detection. The unprecedented sensitivity of the experiment's detectors could lead to the discovery of new particle physics beyond the Standard Model.