Aspen 2013 - Closing in on Dark Matter

28 Jan 2013, 16:00 → 3 Feb 2013, 12:00 US/Mountain

Flug Forum (Aspen Center for Physics)

Anyes TAFFARD (University of California Irvine (US)), Jason KUMAR (University of Hawaii), Jennifer SIEGAL-GASKINS, Jodi COOLEY (SMU), Manoj KAPLINGHAT, Stefan FUNK

Dark matter is a cornerstone of the cosmological Standard Model, but we only have evidence for it through its gravitational effects. Experimental results to date have provided inconclusive but tantalizing evidence for the particle nature of dark matter. In the coming months, experimental developments are expected to shed light on some of its fundamental properties. A significant advance in our understanding may follow. The complementary approaches to detecting dark matter are reaching sensitivities which will probe many dark matter theories. At the same time, there has been exciting new research elucidating the possible theoretical frameworks for dark matter. This Aspen Winter Workshop will focus on synthesizing these latest experimental results and theoretical developments, determining the implications for dark matter properties, and pinpointing future directions in this rapidly evolving field.

Monday 28 January

17:00 → 19:00 Registration

Tuesday 29 January

08:00 → 09:35 Overview

08:00 Welcome

Speaker: Jodi Cooley

08:05 Direct Detection

Speaker: Patrick Decowski

Slides Direct Detection Overview

08:35 Indirect Detection

Speaker: Dan Hooper

Slides Aspen-Indirect-2013.pdf Indirect Detection Overview

09:05 Theory and Phenomenology

Speaker: Bhaskar Dutta

Slides dutta_theory.pdf

09:35 → 09:55 Break

09:55 → 11:10 Direct Detection: 1

09:55 XENON

Speaker: Emilija Pantic

Slides pantic_xenon100.pdf

10:20 SuperCDMS

Speaker: Jeter Hall

Slides Hall_SuperCDMS.pdf

11:10 → 16:30 Break

16:30 → 17:45 Theory-Pheno: 1

16:30 Complementarity of Searches for Dark Matter

I'll discuss perspectives on how different types of searches for particle dark matter (direct, indirect, and production at colliders) are complementary, with emphasis on how theoretical descriptions of dark matter interactions with the Standard Model can help clarify the inter-relation of various search strategies.

Speaker: Tim Tait

Slides tait_complementarity.pdf

16:55 On the annual modulations in direct-detection experiments and the DAMA results

In this talk I will discuss recent results concerning the annual modulations expected in experiments looking for dark matter recoils in the lab. I will begin by describing the general properties of this problem including some new tools. I will then focus on the DAMA result and its relation to the modulations of cosmic muons. I will end by discussing the relation between the modulated and unmodulated parts of a putative signal and how it applies to the signal seen by DAMA.

Speaker: Itay Yavin

Slides Yavin_modulation.pdf Yavin_modulation.pptx

17:20 Importance of upgraded energy reconstruction for direct dark matter searches with liquid xenon detectors

Speaker: Peter Sorensen

Slides Sorensen_energy_reconstruction.pdf

17:45 → 18:15 Break

18:15 → 19:30 Indirect Detection: 1

18:15 The Density & Velocity Structure of Dark Matter Halos

Speaker: Risa Wechsler

Slides wechsler_halos.pdf

18:40 Astrophysical simulations with baryons

Speaker: Justin Read

Slides read_baryons.pdf

19:05 Current and future insights on dark matter particle properties through strong gravitational lensing observations

Speaker: Leonidas Moustakas

Slides moustakas_lensing.pdf

Wednesday 30 January

08:00 → 09:15 Direct Detection: 2

08:00 Neutrino Backgrounds to Large Scale Dark Matter Detectors

Speaker: Tali Figueroa

Slides Figueroa_neutrinos.pdf

08:25 LUX

Speaker: Rick Gaitskell

Slides gaitskell_lux.pdf

08:50 XENON 1T

Speaker: Rafeal Lang

Slides Lang_xenon1T.pdf Lang_xenon1T.pptx

09:15 → 09:45 Break

09:45 → 11:50 Indirect Detection: 2

09:45 Indirect Searches for Dark Matter with the Fermi LAT

Since its launch in 2008, the Fermi LAT has made significant progress towards constraining the standard “WIMP miracle” dark matter scenario. In this talk, I will review recent results from the LAT with a focus on current constraints, tentative signals, and associated uncertainties. I will discuss how an improved understanding the LAT instrument and gamma-ray astrophysics will help to disentangle dark matter signals from a complex gamma-ray sky.

Speaker: Alex Drlica-Wagner

Slides Drlica-Wagner_fermi.pdf

10:10 Searches for TeV-scale dark matter

Speaker: Sasha Belikov

Slides belikov_tevdm.pdf

10:35 Signals from Dark Matter Annihilation at the Galactic Center

Speaker: Tim Linden

Slides linden_galactic_center.pdf

11:00 Joint dataset analysis and dark matter constraints from dwarf galaxies

I will discuss recent work on statistical methods that can be used to test the hypothesis of extremely faint dark matter signals contained in gamma-ray data. I will also discuss recent results on searches for dark matter annihilation emission from dwarf galaxies using data from Fermi and VERITAS

Speaker: Savvas Koushiappas

Slides Koushiappas_dwarf_galaxies.pdf

11:25 Cold Dark Matter vs Galactic Dynamics

Speaker: Matthew Walker

Slides walker_galactic_dynamics.pdf

11:50 → 16:30 Break

16:30 → 17:30 Physics Cafe

Conveners: Kimberly Palladino, Risa Wechsler

17:30 → 19:00 Public Lecture

17:30 Searching for Dark Matter

Speaker: Jim Peebles

Thursday 31 January

08:00 → 09:15 Direct Detection: 3

08:00 DAMA/LIBRA

Speaker: Periluigi Belli

Slides Belli_dama.pdf

08:25 KIMS

Speaker: Youngduk Kim

Slides ydkim_kims.pdf

08:50 DM-ICE

Speaker: Reina Maruyama

Slides Maruyama_dmice.pdf

09:15 → 09:45 Break

09:45 → 11:00 Indirect Detection: 3

09:45 XMASS

Speaker: Kazuyoshi Kobayashi

Slides kobayashi_xmass.pdf

10:10 Fermi-LAT Line Search, Systematic Issues and the 130GeV Feature

Speaker: Eric Charles

Slides

• Charles_fermi-lat.pdf
• Charles_fermi-lat.pptx
• Fermi_LineSearch_Aspen2013.pdf

10:35 Are the Fermi lines real?

Speaker: Daniel Whiteson

Slides whiteson_fermi_aspen2013.pdf

11:00 → 16:30 Break

16:30 → 17:45 Theory-Pheno: 3

16:30 The Search for Dark Matter Debris

Speaker: Mariangela Lisanti

Slides listanti_debris.pdf

16:55 Flavored Dark Matter: Direct Detection and Collider Signals

I consider theories where the dark matter particle carries flavor quantum numbers, and has renormalizable contact interactions with the Standard Model fields. The phenomenology of this scenario depends sensitively on whether dark matter carries lepton flavor, quark flavor or its own internal flavor quantum numbers. I show that each of these possibilities is associated with a characteristic type of vertex, has different implications for direct detection experiments and gives rise to distinct collider signatures. The region of parameter space where dark matter has the right abundance to be a thermal relic is shown to be within reach of current direct detection experiments. I focus on a class of models where dark matter carries tau flavor, and show that the collider signals of these models include events with four or more isolated leptons and missing energy. A full simulation of the signal and backgrounds, including detector effects, shows that in a significant part of parameter space these theories can be discovered above Standard Model backgrounds at the Large Hadron Collider.

Speaker: Zacharia Chacko

Slides chacko_dd_colliders.pdf

17:20 Dark Dynamics in Theory Space and Their Signals in Anomaly Space

Speaker: Neal Weiner

Slides Weiner_dm_dynamics.pdf

17:45 → 18:15 Break

18:15 → 19:30 Indirect Detection: 4

18:15 IceCube + Neutrino Searches

Speaker: Carsten Rott

Slides rott_icecube.pdf

18:40 HAWC

Speaker: John Pretz

Slides hawc-dark-matter-aspen-pretz.pdf pretz_hawc

19:05 AMS-02

Speaker: Andrei Kounine

Slides kounine_ams.pdf

19:30 → 21:00 Conference Dinner

Friday 1 February

08:00 → 09:15 Direct Detection: 4

08:00 Axion Overview

Speaker: David Tanner

Slides Tanner-Aspen.pdf tanner_axions

08:25 ADMX

Speaker: Gianpaolo Carosi

Slides carosi_admx.pdf carosi_admx.pptx

08:50 CAST

Speaker: Jaime Ruz Armendariz

Slides ruz_cast.pdf

09:15 → 09:45 Break

09:45 → 11:00 Theory-Pheno: 4

09:45 Probing dark matter streams with direct detection experiments

Speaker: Aravind Natarajan

Slides natarajan_dmstreams.pdf

10:10 Beyond Collisionless Dark Matter

Self-interacting dark matter has been proposed to solve small scale structure problems. In this talk, we will present a simple and generic self-interacting dark matter model where dark matter particles interact through a sub-GeV force carrier. We show that the simple model can accommodate all astrophysical bounds on self-interactions in dark matter halos and explain the observed relic density, through a single coupling constant.

Speaker: Hai-bo Yu

Slides yu_collisionlessdm.pdf

10:35 Beyond CDM: The Cosmology of Atomic Dark Matter

Speaker: Francis-Yan Cyr-Racine

Slides cry-racine_atomicdm.pdf

11:00 → 16:30 Break

16:30 → 17:45 Theory-Pheno: 5

16:30 An Unexpected Journey: The Implications of the Detection of Continuum Energy Gamma-rays Consistent with Dark Matter Annihilation in the Galactic Center

It has been known for some time that the center of the Milky Way Galaxy would be the most luminous source of gamma-ray photons from dark matter annihilation. Our recent work shows that observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveal that Galactic Center (GC) has a source with large luminosity and high statistical significance that is consistent with extended emission from dark matter annihilation in three ways: (1) its spatial morphology is consistent with that expected from numerical simulations; (2) its luminosity is consistent with the expected thermal-production dark matter annihilation rate; and (3) its energy spectrum is consistent with annihilation into standard model quark channels for weak-scale dark matter particle masses. The very crowded region of the GC also harbors a high density of other astrophysical high-energy sources, including millisecond pulsars, that could mimic this signal. I will discuss the details of the observation, its several interpretations, its implications, and the potential future resolution of the nature of this source.

Speaker: Kevork Abazajian

Slides abazajian_galactic_center.pdf

16:55 Bubbles And Bumps: Disentangling Two Spectral Components In The Fermi Bubbles

Speaker: Tracy Slatyer

Slides slatyer_bubbles.pdf

17:20 Aspects of Iso-spin violating dark matter

Speaker: Danny Marfatia

Slides marfatia_ivmd.pdf

17:45 → 18:15 Break

18:15 → 19:30 Indirect Detection: 5

18:15 Light dark matter: motivation, theory, ongoing search

I will review the motivation, the models, and some astrophysical clues for dark matter in the keV mass range, including sterile neutrinos and string/supersymmetry moduli. I will also discuss the results of an ongoing search for this form of dark matter using dedicated observations on all three X-ray telescopes: Chandra, Suzaku, and XMM-Newton.

Speaker: Alex Kusenko

Slides kusenko_lightdm.pdf

18:40 Local Dark Matter Density

Speaker: Jo Bovy

Slides bovy_dm_density.pdf

19:05 Tidal streams

Speaker: Raymond Carlberg

Slides Aspen_2013_Sub-halos.pdf carlberg_subhalos

Saturday 2 February

08:00 → 09:15 Direct Detection: 5

08:00 COUPP

Speaker: Russell Neilson

Slides neilson_coupp.pdf

08:25 PandaX

Speaker: Scott Stephenson

Slides stephenson_pandax.pdf

08:50 DM-TPC

Speaker: James Battat

Slides battat_dmtpc.pdf

09:15 → 09:45 Break

09:45 → 11:00 Indirect Detection: 6

09:45 The Quest for Dark Matter Signals and the gamma-ray sky: the low energy window

To uncover the dark matter, to connect what is astrophysically observed to what will be seen as new particles produced in the LHC, we need new measurements. The Fermi Large Area Telescope is providing the measurements of high energy cosmic ray electrons, positrons and gammas with unprecedented accuracy. These measurements represent a unique probe for studying the origin and diffusive propagation of cosmic rays as well as for looking for possible evidences of Dark Matter. I will review recent results and future experiments at high energies (like CTA) and the plans to cover the low energy range between 10 and 50 MeV.

Speaker: Aldo Morselli

Slides morselli_fermi_lowE.pdf

10:10 CTA

Speaker: Matthew Wood

Slides wood_cta.pdf

10:35 Dark Matter Search Perspectives with Gamma-400

Speaker: Alex Moiseev

Slides moiseev_gamma400.pdf

11:00 → 16:30 Break

16:30 → 17:55 Theory-Pheno: 6

16:30 Axion, WIMP and collider search complementarity

Speaker: Howie Baer

Slides baer_complementarity.pdf

16:55 Dark Matter at Colliders

Speaker: Lian-Tao Wang

Slides wang_dmcollider.pdf

17:20 ATLAS

Speaker: Daniel Whiteson

Slides whiteson_atlas.pdf

17:55 → 18:15 Break

18:15 → 19:30 Direct Detection: 6

18:15 DEAP/CLEAN

Speaker: Kimberly Palladino

Slides palladino_miniclean.pdf

18:40 Future with Liquid Noble Detectors

Speaker: Dan McKinsey

Slides mckinsey_liquid_nobles.pdf

19:05 Future with Solid State Devices

Speaker: Richard Schnee

Slides schnee_solid_state_detectors.pdf

Sunday 3 February

08:30 → 09:50 Collider

08:30 Axions and Radio Telescopes

Speaker: Peter Quinn

Slides quinn_axions.pdf

08:50 Dark matter searches at CMS

This presentation will summarize the results of dark matter searches in 5 ifb of proton-proton collision data at the center-of-mass energy 7 TeV collected with the CMS detector at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2011. Dark matter particles, if produced in the collision, will be invisible to the CMS detector; their existence can be inferred by a large missing transverse momentum (MET). Supersymmetric (SUSY) models predict the existence of dark matter candidate particles. This presentation will show interpretations of the CMS SUSY searches in terms of Constrained minimum Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM) and Simplified Model Spectra (SMS) with an emphasis on dark matter searches. Events with large MET and a single jet (monojet events) or events with large MET and a single photon (mono-photon events) can be final states of direct productions of dark matter particles after the initial-state radiation (ISR). This presentation will also show the upper limits on the dark matter-nucleon cross sections that the CMS monojet and mono-photon analyses placed.

Speaker: Tai Sakuma

Slides tai_cms.pdf

09:25 Search for dark matter and dark forces at BaBar

Recent astrophysical observations have motivated interest in models with a dark sector with GeV-scale gauge and Higgs bosons. In such models, dark-sector photons typically mix with the standard-model photon, enabling their detection in e+e- collisions at BABAR, with very little background in some of the channels. We present searches for a dark-sector photon and a dark-sector Higgs boson and set stringent limits on the parameters of the model. Our limits on the SM-dark sector mixing parameter are tighter than previous limits by up to two orders of magnitude, depending on the masses of the dark Higgs and dark boson.

Speaker: Bertrand Echenard

Slides echenard_babar.pdf

09:50 → 10:40 Closing

09:50 Conference Highlights and Summary

Speaker: Bernard Sadoulet

Slides AspenConclusions_Sadoulet.pdf