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Revision as of 20:08, 1 October 2012 by Mig21bp (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)ANAIS is a particle detector experiment designed to detect dark matter. ANAIS stands for Annual modulation with NAI Scintillators and has as main goal the direct detection of the galactic dark matter through its scattering off the target nuclei in a radiopure NaI(Tl) crystal. This dark matter signal should be annually modulated by the change in the relative velocity WIMP-nucleus consequence of the rotation of the Earth around the Sun.
The project ANAIS is the large-scale conclusion of previous feasibility studies carried out with different prototypes by the University of Zaragoza group at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory, Spain. The complete experiment will use 250 kg of ultrapure NaI(Tl) crystals to study the expected annual modulation in the galactic dark matter signal. 25 kg in two prototype detectors are being taking data since end October 2012 as last step before the mounting of the whole experiment.
DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA, experimental efforts performed at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, accumulating more than thirteen annual cycles of data (also with NaI scintillators), obtained a positive signal for the above mentioned annual modulation. Comparison of that result with those negative coming from other targets and experimental techniques is strongly model dependent. ANAIS (that uses the same target and technique that DAMA/LIBRA) appeared in the last roadmap of ApPEC as the experiment that would allow testing such result with an independent experimental set-up and in a model-independent way.