Picasso is a dark matter experiment located at SNOLAB
 
About Picasso
Picasso keywords:
  1. •Dark matter is believed to contribute ~25% of the total mass of the universe.
  2. •Currently no direct evidence of these particles has been found.
  3. •Supersymmetry theories favored by particle physicists today predict the existence of a  stable heavy particle that only interacts weakly. These particles are called WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles).
  4. •PICASSO uses Fluorine as active material. It’s nucleus has a relatively high probability to interact with spin-carrying WIMPs.  
  5. •To find interactions between normal matter and dark matter particles a detector has to be made with very low radioactivity materials and the experiment has to be shielded from cosmic radiation. The PICASSO experiment is located ~2km underground at SNOLAB.
  6. •Picasso uses tiny (200µm) liquid droplets of freon suspended in a gel as active material. The droplets are kept in a superheated state. When a WIMP hits the droplet the freon changes phase to a gaseous bubble. This transition creates a shock wave that is detected by a piezo-electric sensor.
  7. •Picasso is a collaboration between Queen’s, Université de Montréal, IUSB South Bend, Laurentian University, and Prague Technical University
Wikipedia Dark Matter
Picasso papers in spires Picasso UdeM Website
External Links
WMAP Experiment SNOLAB