Searching for Physics Beyond the Standard Model at SNOLAB

Particle Physics is currently at a crossroad - with the Discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012, most of the predictions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics have been confirmed, leaving researchers wanting to further probe the nature of our Universe without a clear roadmap. Two long-standing questions are "what is the nature and absolute mass scale of the neutrino?" and "what is the dark matter that makes up most of our Universe ?" In this talk I'll discuss the current status of those problems, and how they can be addressed by searching for rare interactions deep underground in the SNOLAB facility near Sudbury, Ontario. A novel experiment pioneered in Canada, under development for almost ten years and which started operating in 2016, DEAP-3600, allows cutting-edge sensitivity to dark matter by instrumenting a large target mass of 3.6 tonnes of liquid argon. I will present the status and latest results of the search for dark matter with DEAP-3600 and future plans.

Mark Boulay was a graduate student on the SNO experiment, where he played a leading role in calibration and analysis of the first scientific results, demonstrating that neutrinos generated in the Sun changed flavour on their way to terrestrial detectors, solving the long-standing solar neutrino problem. He has since founded the DEAP-3600 dark matter project, and leads the international DEAP-3600 collaboration. He has extensive experience in detector data analysis, low-background and radon assay techniques, and cryogenic noble liquid detector design and construction. He spent ten years as a professor and Tier-2 Canada Research Chair (CRC) at Queen's University before moving to Carleton in 2015 as a Canada Research Professor.