Stephen Hawking visiting the PICO Experiment

Stephan Hawking’s visit to SNOLAB. Standing outside the PICO-60 water tank, where an inside view of the detector is shown on the computer.

 

Welcome to the PICO Project

PICO is a joint collaboration formed by the merger of the PICASSO and COUPP collaborations.

The PICO experiment has demonstrated that moderately superheated bubble chambers can be used for the direct detection of nuclear recoils, operating at energy thresholds as low as 2.45 keV (publications). Two detectors (2L and 60) were constructed 2 km underground at the SNOLAB facility in Sudbury, Ontario (Canada). Presently, the collaboration is finishing the commissioning of PICO-40L, a bubble chamber  filled with approximately 57 kg of C3F8. Additionally, a scaled-up detector with a target mass approximately 250 kg (PICO-500) is fully funded and currently in the design and procurement phase.

To learn more about the previous and upcoming experiments, please follow the imbedded links to learn about PICO’s search for dark matter.