Speaker
Description
The quest to uncover the nature of dark matter remains one of the central goals in astroparticle physics. A leading hypothesis is that dark matter is composed of new elementary particles, with possible masses and interaction cross sections spanning many orders of magnitude. Particles in the MeV to TeV mass range may leave observable signatures through rare scatters off atomic nuclei or electrons in ultra-sensitive detectors operated in deep underground laboratories. In this talk, I will present the current status of direct detection efforts, outlining the experimental principles and highlighting key recent results. I will survey the most promising detector technologies, discuss their scientific reach across different dark matter mass regimes, and examine how current and next-generation experiments aim to overcome remaining challenges.
