Project Details
Projekt
DELight: Data acquisition and computing
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Belina von Krosigk
Subject Area
Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields
Term
since 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 561595909
DELight is a new particle physics experiment to search for light dark matter (LDM) particles with masses well below 1 GeV/c2 by detecting elastic LDM scattering off a cryogenic liquid helium (LHe) target. Its low mass number, the low threshold achievable with large-area magnetic microcalorimeters (MMCs), its intrinsic radiopurity and the availability of several signal channels render LHe an ideal target for LDM searches. DELight can only be realized through the confluence of its six projects. Each project plays a fundamental and unique role, where this project (P5) is responsible for the data acquisition (DAQ) system at hardware and software level, and for the computing infrastructure. The DAQ system, which includes the trigger system, together with the computing infrastructure, is fundamentally required in order to reliably identify energy depositions, to collect and process the data, to write both raw data and processed data to disk, and to manage data storage and access for analysis. In order to maximize the science output of the experiment, two aspects are crucial for DAQ and computing: On the one hand deadtime must be avoided in order to maximize the exposure and thus the sensitivity to the dark matter scattering cross section. On the other hand the trigger threshold must be as low as possible to be sensitive to as low as possible dark matter masses without significantly increasing the noise trigger rate. The trigger system will be two-staged, where the level-1 (L1) trigger occurs on hardware level and the subsequent level-2 (L2) trigger occurs on software level. The L1 trigger evaluates the raw time series output of the MMC-based large-area microcalorimeters (LAMCALs) after digitization and decides whether an elevation above the baseline of these traces is expected to be noise or signal. It is thus the baseline resolution together with the ability of the L1 trigger to distinguish between noise and signal down to very low energy depositions, which defines the L1 trigger threshold. In phase-I of DELight, the detector system will consist of 56 LAMCALs, each providing one channel for the DAQ to readout. The design goal for the baseline resolution of each LAMCAL is at σ < 1 eV, which corresponds to a design goal for a 4σ trigger threshold of about 4 eV per LAMCAL. The L2 trigger will combine the L1 information to take a decision on the full event with a design goal for the L2 trigger threshold of 20 eV. In later phases of DELight more readout channels are expected. Potential reasons for this increase include side-wall instrumentation, a larger cell diameter, and a potential double-readout LAMCAL design. At the same time a better energy resolution and lower trigger threshold will be aimed for. The goal of this project is thus a scalable, deadtime-free DAQ with a highly efficient, low-energy trigger system followed by powerful event reconstruction on software level, tied into a streamlined, low-maintenance computing infrastructure.
DFG Programme
Research Units
