Martin Stahlberg: Search for dark matter with cryogenic NaI detectors in the upcoming COSINUS exp.

Since more than two decades, the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration reports an annual modulation of the measured particle flux in their NaI scintillation detectors, compatible with interactions due to a dark matter particle on the WIMP mass scale. This observation is in strong tension with results from other searches, which use different target materials. COSINUS is an upcoming experiment to be constructed at the LNGS underground laboratory, and will perform rare event searches using high-purity NaI crystals operated as cryogenic detectors. The main advantages include a low recoil energy threshold on the order of a few keV as well as two readout channels providing event discrimination on an event-by-event basis. COSINUS aims at providing a model-independent cross-check of the DAMA/LIBRA claim within the next few years. In this talk, an overview on the COSINUS working principle and planned setup will be given, and latest results from prototype measurements will be presented. (Kashiwa 2020)