Simulating Neutron Interaction with Cryogenic Dark Matter Detectors

The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) is one of the experiments designed to directly detect dark matter in the form of weakly-interacting massive particles, or ``WIMPS''. The detectors used in this experiment are very sensitive at cryogenic temperatures and are designed to measure the recoil energy imparted to a nucleus in the detector due to collisions with WIMPs. These detectors have already achieved progressive improvements in detection technology; however, it remains unclear how the detectors will register interactions with WIMPS. Here we report on the use of Geant4, a Monte-Carlo framework, to simulate the SuperCDMS setup and its interaction with low-energy neutrons, which should closely approximate the response of the detector to WIMPs. Preliminary results of this simulation indicate a close match of the simulation to already-established physics for neutrons interactions with the materials in the simulation. This matching of the simulation to actual results suggests the future usefulness of the simulation for enabling a calibration of the detector with low-energy neutrons.