Conveners
Parallel 1D: Dark Matter I
- Session chair: Dr. Chamkaur Ghag
Jonathan Davis
(IPPP, Durham University)
4/8/14, 1:00 PM
Particle Astrophysics, Current and Future
contributed talk
The CoGeNT collaboration claim to have observed a signal of light Dark Matter scattering off nuclei in their detector, to a significance of approximately 2.5 sigma. I will critically assess these recent, and earlier, claims. I present a Bayesian analysis of the 1136 live days CoGeNT data, with particular focus on the removal of surface events through the use of nuisance parameters. I derive...
Dr
Lea Reichhart
(University College London)
4/8/14, 1:15 PM
Particle Astrophysics, Current and Future
contributed talk
A large number of astronomical and cosmological observations point towards the existence of an unknown dark component dominating the matter content of our Universe. The most compelling candidates for dark matter are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which may be detected in low background experiments located deep underground, searching for direct interactions of WIMPs with...
Mr
Adam Bailey
(Imperial College)
4/8/14, 1:30 PM
Particle Astrophysics, Current and Future
contributed talk
$^{85}$Kr is an anthropogenic radioisotope which makes up a very small fraction of the Kr abundance in the atmosphere, and contributes to the background in double-phase xenon detectors searching for WIMP dark matter. It has a half-life of 10.8 years and decays predominantly via a $\beta^-$ decay with an endpoint of 687 keV. Commercially available xenon procured for LUX contained 130 ppb g/g...
Dr
Venus Keus
(University of Southampton)
4/8/14, 1:45 PM
The Energy Frontier Programme
contributed talk
Multi Higgs-doublet models (NHDMs) are amongst the simplest extensions of the Standard Model, motivated for instance by Supersymmetric scenarios. I will discuss NHDMs with various symmetry groups which contain viable dark matter candidates, preserved by the remnant of the symmetry after EWSB. I will describe the dark matter phenomenology of these models and look into new Higgs decay channels...
Dr
Joseph Walding
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
4/8/14, 2:00 PM
Particle Astrophysics, Current and Future
contributed talk
DEAP-3600 is a single-phase liquid Argon dark matter detector currently under construction at SNOLAB in Canada with first physics data expected in the summer, 2014. DEAP has been designed to achieve extremely low background rates, including those from 39Ar β decays, neutron scatters, and surface α contamination, with the goal of measuring the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section down...
Alistair Butcher
(R)
4/8/14, 2:15 PM
Particle Astrophysics, Current and Future
contributed talk
DEAP-3600 is a single phase liquid Argon dark matter detector based at SNOLab. Commissioning will start in May 2014 with first physics data is expected in the fall of 2014. This talk will present an overview of the analysis and calibration framework. In particular, some of the challenges found in characterising the photomultiplier tubes and their effect on timing based particle identification...
Dr
Malcolm Fairbairn
(King's College London)
4/8/14, 2:30 PM
Particle Astrophysics, Current and Future
contributed talk
The continuing search for dark matter will run into problems in the medium term future due to the background of neutrinos (especially from the Sun) which acts as a floor on the M-sigma plane beyond which it seems impossible to probe. We ask how far one can improve this situation using detailed energy, time and directional event information.
Mr
Richard Eggleston
(RHUL)
4/8/14, 2:45 PM
Particle Astrophysics, Current and Future
contributed talk
The Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber (DMTPC) project aims to detect the direction of dark matter-induced nuclear recoils, in order to correlate a candidate signal with the astrophysical dark matter wind associated with the Earth's motion through the galactic dark matter halo. This talk will discuss recent progress with emphasis on directionality.
Felix Kahlhoefer
(University of Oxford)
4/8/14, 3:00 PM
Particle Astrophysics, Current and Future
contributed talk
Uncertainty in the local velocity distribution of dark matter is a key difficulty in the analysis of data from direct detection experiments. In my talk, I will propose a completely new approach for dealing with this uncertainty that does not involve any assumptions about astrophysics. By decomposing the dark matter velocity distribution into a sum of a large number of streams with different...