Searching for Cold Dark Matter Signatures in the Milky Way

by Laura Baudis (Universite de Zurich)

Monday 1 Dec 2008, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Zurich

EPFL, Salle 727 du BSP (EPFL, Salle 727 du BSP)

We have strong evidence that about 95% of matter in our Universe is dark, revealing its presence only by its gravitational attraction. In hierarchical structure formation, two macro-structures exist in the Milky Way: the dark halo, and the dark disk. If the dark matter in these structures is made of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, it can be directly detected via elastic scattering from nuclei in ultra- low background, deep underground detectors. I will give an informal overview of the experiments with best sensitivities to date, and show the prospects for the near future. I will comment on the DAMA evidence for an annual modulation of their event rate, and compare with current, or expected results from other direct detection experiments.