Bubble chambers, past and present

Synopsis

Bubble chambers hold a special place in particle physics. They are among the earliest technologies used to detect subatomic particles which led to many discoveries, including the observation of weak neutral currents at a bubble chamber called Gargamelle — not the villain from the Smurfs. This finding later led to the discovery of W and Z bosons, the gauge bosons for weak interactions. Today, we still use this technology in dark matter direct search experiments to detect interactions between dark matter and standard model particles with a very low energy threshold. This talk will explore the development of bubble chamber technology and its ongoing applications in particle physics experiments. To conclude, I'll briefly present highlights from my master’s research, which modelled bubble nucleation efficiency for dark matter direct search experiments.