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I will describe the status of phenomenological studies of dark matter, and how they enable searches for it using various methods.
There is a 10-sigma discrepancy between the observed and expected abundances of primordial 7Li, which is naturally explained by a DM-nucleon interaction that is comfortably allowed by laboratory and other constraints. I first review the literature on BBN observations and the standard CDM calculation, and then report on a calculation of the modification to standard BBN when DM interactions can...
In this talk, I survey new non-traditional approaches to a number of topics in dark-matter physics. These include strongly coupled dark sectors, new thermal freezeout phenomenologies, new dark-matter effects emerging from cosmological phase transitions, and a new approach towards probing the dark sector with detectors that are designed to explore the so-called "lifetime frontier". As we...
The particle nature of dark matter affects the progression of structure formation in the universe. On small scales, differences between the standard cold dark matter picture and alternatives, such as warm or self-interacting dark matter, become especially pronounced. Gravitational lensing provides a mechanism to directly probe the density profiles and overall abundance of low mass dark matter...
I will discuss the prospects for identifying solar neutrinos in future direct dark matter detection experiments. I will discuss them as a background for dark matter searches, and also the implications for constraining the properties of neutrinos and their sources. I will also discuss the complementarity of these future measurements with terrestrial coherent neutrino scattering experiments.
The Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering (CE$\nu$NS) has been observed at a 6.7-sigma confidence level by the COHERENT collaboration using a 14.6-kg CsI[Na] scintillator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The CE$\nu$NS process predicted by the standard model is a neutral-current weak interaction where the cross section is enhanced by $N^2$, where $N$ is the number of neutrons in the...
In a recent pair of Nature papers, Bowman et al. claimed a detection of an anomalously low 21 cm brightness temperature at a redshift of 17, and Barkana interpreted this as evidence of cold dark matter that was scattering with baryons at that cosmic epoch. In this talk, I will discuss constraints available in the particle physics literature, and future directions for particle, astro, and...
The purpose of line-intensity mapping (IM), an emerging tool for extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, is to measure the integrated emission along the line of sight from spectral lines emitted from galaxies and the intergalactic medium. The observed frequency of the line then provides a distance determination allowing the three-dimensional distribution of the emitters to be mapped. A...
The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment will search for low-mass dark matter particles at SNOLAB, the deep underground laboratory near Sudbury Ontario Canada. The new generation of SuperCDMS germanium and silicon detectors will be tested for functionality in facilities operated by the SuperCDMS collaboration in laboratories above ground. However, the background radiation in these facilities is very...
I will demonstrate how current and future measurements of the global 21-cm signal could provide new constraints on models of p-wave annihilating dark matter (DM), over a broad range of DM masses. 21cm observations are sensitive to the baryon temperature at the end of the cosmic dark ages, and are particularly well-suited to constrain p-wave models, because the energy injection rate from p-wave...
The primary advantage of the bubble chamber technology for dark matter detection, as used by the PICO collaboration, is its simultaneous sensitivity to nuclear recoils from dark matter interactions and insensitivity ($\sim 10^{-10}$) to electron recoil backgrounds. Previously published data in CF$_3$I indicated that the probability of nucleation for a single electron recoil scales with the...
Measurements of the temperature of the baryons at the end of the cosmic dark ages can potentially set very precise constraints on energy injection from exotic sources, such as annihilation or decay of the dark matter. However, additional effects that lower the gas temperature can substantially weaken the expected constraints on exotic energy injection, whereas additional radiation backgrounds...
The nature of the dark matter thought to make up most of the matter in the universe is unknown. It may consist of new particles from beyond the standard model. For close to two decades, the DAMA experiment has claimed to have detected such particles. This claim is controversial, in particular because there is no accepted model for the background radioactivity in DAMA. One major unknown is the...
Liquid xenon is one of the most promising targets for WIMP dark matter direct detection. Above 10GeV, the most stringent limits on WIMP-nucleus cross section have been established by the LUX, XENON1T, and PANDAX-II collaborations, by using the technology of the two-phase xenon time projection chamber. In addition, several experiments using the same technology are in development, in particular...
The dark matter (DM) content in the local solar neighborhood is an important ingredient for direct detection experiments on Earth such as LZ, Xenon, PandaX, and searches for DM in charged cosmic ray data from PAMELA, AMS-02, DAMPE, and CALET. Traditionally, the local DM density has been estimated by analyzing the vertical motion of different ‘tracer’ stars in the solar neighborhood. These...
We systematically approach the topic of signal diversity and model discrimination for a variety of future dark matter (DM) direct detection experiments. Firstly I introduce the Euclideanized signal method which will allow for a "benchmark-model-free” discussion of optimal experimental design. Secondly, I will present an intuitive way to quantify the sensitivity of experiments in terms of the...
New and improved limits on Dark Matter interactions with baryons, for DM masses in the GeV range and below, are reported from XQC, CRESST-surface run and DAMIC (Mahdawi-Farrar 2018).
Also reported will be the recent determination of the Earth’s atmosphere of DM, which provides strong new constraints for DM in this mass range from HST’s orbital decay, storage times of liquid He and other...
We investigate the prospects of searching dark sector models via exotic Z-boson decay at future e+e− colliders with Giga Z and Tera Z options. Four general categories of dark sector models: Higgs portal dark matter, vector portal dark matter, inelastic dark matter and axion- like particles, are considered. Focusing on channels motivated by the dark sector models, we carry out a model...
One of the pillars of the standard cosmological model is the undisputed existence of a relic cosmic neutrino background (CNB) that still need to be probed. Recently a new window to the direct detection of CNB has been opened with the proposal of the PTOLEMY experiment, with a prototype detector ready to be tested at an Underground site, likely the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy. Given the...
We explore the physics potential of using precision timing information at the LHC in the search for long-lived particles (LLP). In comparison with the light Standard Model particle produced from the hard interactions, the decay products of massive LLPs arrives at detectors with sizable time delay. We propose new strategies to take advantage of this property, using the initial state radiation...
This talk presents results from the CMS experiment on searches for dark matter mediator particles. The searches target new bosons decaying into dijet final states. Techniques for studying low-mass resonances below the typical threshold for conventional dijet resonance searches are emphasized, including the use of data scouting, online bottom quark tagging, and boosted mediator production due...
The ANAIS (Annual modulation with NaI(Tl) Scintillators) experiment aims at the confirmation or refutation of the DAMA/LIBRA positive annual modulation signal in the low-energy detection rate using the same target and technique at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) in Spain. Several 12.5 kg NaI(Tl) modules produced by Alpha Spectra Inc. have been operated in Canfranc during the last...
Identifying signatures of dark matter at indirect-detection experiments is generally more challenging in non-minimal dark-matter scenarios than it is in scenarios involving a single dark particle. The reason is that the partitioning of the total dark-matter abundance across an ensemble of particles with different masses tends to "smear" the injection spectra of photons and other cosmic-ray...
Various cosmological and astrophysical observations strongly support the existence of the Dark Matter (DM) with an abundance of ≈ 27%. Recent theoretical work has highlighted the motivations for sub-GeV dark matter candidates that interact with ordinary matter through new light mediator particles, called "vector portal" model. Recently, a great deal of interest has been paid to the...
The EDELWEISS collaboration is performing a direct search for WIMP dark matter in the range from 1 to 20 GeV/c2 using cryogenic germanium detectors equipped with a full charge and thermal signal readout. We present the most recent results and the currently ongoing program to reduce the experimental thresholds and gain sensitivity for low mass WIMPs, either utilizing the Neganov-Trofimov-Luke...
PandaX experiment, located at China JinPing underground Laboratory (CJPL), is a 500kg scale liquid xenon dark matter direct detection experiment. With recent data, PandaX-II experiment obtained stringent upper limits on the spin-independent (SI) and spin-dependent (SD) WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering cross sections. Alternative models of dark matter are also explored using this data....
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a WIMP dark matter search under construction at the 4850’ level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota. The centerpiece of the experiment is a two-phase TPC containing seven active tonnes of liquefied xenon. Rejection of backgrounds is enhanced by a set of veto detectors, including a liquid scintillator Outer Detector. LZ has been designed to...
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a next generation dark matter direct detection experiment that will operate 4850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, USA. Using a two-phase xenon detector with an active mass of 7 tonnes, LZ will search primarily for low-energy interactions with Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which are hypothesized to...
The SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment, currently under construction, will seek direct detection of dark matter with mass from 0.5-10 GeV/c$^2$. It has been designed with an initial sensitivity to nuclear recoil cross sections ~ 10$^{−43}$ cm$^2$ for a dark matter particle mass of 1 GeV/c$^2$, and with capacity to continue exploration to both smaller masses and better sensitivities. The experiment...
DarkSide-50 is a dual-phase argon time projection chamber (TPC) with a 50 kg active volume that has been operating at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) since mid-2015. I will present the latest dark matter search results from this detector and their implications for a next-generation experiment, DarkSide-20k, a more than 20 tonne fiducial mass TPC equipped with SiPM-based photosensors....
The PICO-60 experiment, located in the SNOLAB underground laboratory, is the largest bubble chamber operated to date by the PICO collaboration, filled with 52 kg of superheated C$_3$F$_8$. Initial dark matter search results were reported in 2017 based on operation at a 3.3 keV threshold. I will report new dark matter search results from increased exposure and lowered operational threshold,...
The XENON1T experiment is a direct dark matter search that has been operating in stable conditions at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory since December 2016. With an unprecedented target mass and a world-record low-background level, XENON1T is the largest liquid xenon time projection chamber operated up to date and it is uniquely placed to explore uncharted territory, further probing the...
The XENON series of experiments has been highly successful in pushing the limits of
WIMP direct searches for more than a decade. With the currently most sensitive DM experiment XENON1T still taking data, the collaboration is preparing the next step, the upgraded and upscaled XENONnT. This new experiment is making use of many infrastructures and systems built for XENON1T, located at the LNGS...
After the successful conclusion of the PICO 60 experiment, the new "right-side-up", or inverted bubble chamber, PICO 40L, will start operation later in 2018. We will present the current status and the experimental plans for PICO 40L.
The PICO collaboration is also in the design and early procurement phase for the PICO 500 experiment, a tonne scale dark matter bubble chamber that aims to...
Generalized dark matter (GDM) is a powerful framework capable of emulating the effects of a wide variety of dark matter and dark energy models. In this talk, I will discuss the GDM framework and show how it can reduce the moderate tension in the low CMB TT multipoles. The standard $\Lambda$CDM model predicts more power in the low TT multipoles than observed by Planck. This tension can be...
The DARWIN (DARk matter WIMP search with liquid xenoN) experiment will be the next-to-next generation direct search dark matter detector. Featuring a 40 t target mass liquid xenon time projection chamber it will reach a sensitivity to WIMP nuclear recoil cross-sections at the level of the "ultimate" irreducible background induced by coherent scattering of solar and atmospheric neutrinos. Hence...
Low-threshold detectors at sub-keV levels open windows to directly search for light dark matter (LDM) particles and constrain their possible interactions with electrons. As the energy and momentum scales of such scattering processes overlap with typical atomic scales, the many-body physics plays an important role in interpreting experimental data. In this talk, we present our approach and...
The SuperCDMS collaboration has designed a new generation of semiconductor-based dark matter detectors with sensitivity to single charge carriers and very low dark count rates. The achieved threshold of less than half of an electron-hole pair enables the detection of events with energy deposits as little as 1.2 eV (0.7 eV), the indirect bandgap energy of Si (Ge). This threshold was reached...
We explore the possibility that bound states involving dark matter particles could be detected by resonance searches at the LHC, and the generic implications of such scenarios for indirect and direct detection. We demonstrate that resonance searches are complementary to mono-jet searches and can probe dark matter masses above 1 TeV with current LHC data. We argue that this parameter regime,...
Dual-phase xenon time projection chambers have been recently suggested to be sensitive to sub-GeV dark matter if the inelastic channels of Bremsstrahlung and the Migdal effect in the nuclear interaction are taken into account. Sub-GeV dark matter is difficult to probe due to the small energy transfer in dark matter-nucleus elastic scattering and the finite energy threshold of the detector....
In this talk velocity dependent self-interacting dark matter models (vdSIDM) will be considered. A brief discussion on how dark matter self interactions might alleviate potential CDM problems at small scales will be presented. Following it will be shown that data already collected by the IceCube-DeepCore neutrino telescopes can probe most of the interesting vdSIDM parameter space. Finally that...
The XENON collaboration has completed a search for WIMP-nucleon Spin-Independent elastic scattering using a one tonne-year exposure of XENON1T detector. The XENON1T experiment has an electronic recoil background of ~0.2 events/(tonne-day-keVee), the lowest ever achieved in any dark matter search experiments. This talk will describe the background modeling performed in this WIMPs search analysis.
We study astrophysical properties and stability under parametric resonance of photons of dark matter axion condensates. Gravitational attraction and self-interactions can cause the axion field to re-organize into a BEC of spatial localized clumps. For spherical configurations, we find that clumps which are spatially large are stable, while clumps which are spatially small are unstable and may...
There is a substantial effort in the physics community to search for dark matter interactions with the Standard Model of particle physics. Collisions between dark matter particles and baryons exchange heat and momentum in the early Universe, enabling a search for dark matter interactions using cosmological observations in a parameter space that is highly complementary to that of direct...
As noble liquid time projection chambers grow in size, their high voltage requirements increase, and detailed, reproducible studies of breakdown and electroluminescence are needed to inform their design. The Xenon Breakdown Apparatus (XeBrA) is a 5-liter cryogenic apparatus designed to study high voltage behavior in noble liquids located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This talk will...
The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment will use a seven tonne dual-phase xenon TPC for the direct detection of WIMP dark matter. Backgrounds that can affect the experiment’s sensitivity must be well understood. Simulations are essential to estimate these and thus to develop effective strategies to mitigate them. They are also useful in assessing detector performance, and planning calibration and analysis...
The robustness of inflation to inhomogeneous initial conditions for matter fields and the spacetime metric is under investigation. If inflationary expansion fails to begin under sufficiently inhomogeneous initial conditions, such that inflation requires fine-tuning of its initial state to occur, then its naturalness is challenged. I will present results for the range of initial conditions...
The LZ (LUX-ZEPLIN) dark matter search experiment is a liquid xenon time projection chamber (TPC) with a 7 tonne active xenon volume currently under construction. Four wire mesh grids of 1.5 m diameter establish electric fields in the detector to drift ionization electrons across the volume and extract them from the liquid surface. This presentation will discuss the design, construction,...
New decay channels for the neutron into dark matter and other particles have been suggested for explaining a long-standing discrepancy between the neutron lifetime measured from trapped neutrons versus those decaying in flight. Many such scenarios are already ruled out by their effects on neutron stars, and the decays into dark matter plus photon or electron-positron pair have been...
We describe two new measurements from the PIXeY two-phase xenon time projection chamber. The extraction efficiency of quasi-free electrons from the xenon surface was measured as the field in the gas above the liquid surface was varied from 4.5 to 13.1 kV / cm. The extraction efficiency was seen to increase even at the highest fields, suggesting that the charge signals in two-phase xenon...
The axion was first proposed as a solution to the strong CP problem, and also serves as a well-motivated dark matter candidate. HAYSTAC is a dark matter axion experiment designed to detect cosmic axions through their conversion into photons using a high $Q$ microwave cavity detector. The flexibility of HAYSTAC's platform allows for the development of new microwave cavity and amplifier concepts...
The state of nuclear recoil calibrations in germanium and silicon at and below 500 eV and plans for SuperCDMS will be discussed. New calibrations, and novel methods of calibration, at the ultra-low thresholds acheivable by SuperCDMS are required. Traditional calibrations using the scattering of fast neutrons will be supplemented by calibrations studying the Thompson scattering of high-energy...
We have all heard of the cloud and bubble chambers of course, and the latter in the context of direct WIMP dark matter detection even. However, no one has explored a third phase transition, into solid, until now that is. This talk will introduce the snowball chamber, which utilizes a supercooled liquid, just purified water in the prototype. An incoming particle triggers nucleation in the...
LUX (Large Underground Xenon) is a retired, direct dark matter detection experiment that has published three, previously world leading limits on the spin-independent cross section for the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) nucleon scattering. The detector was dismantled in the Fall of 2016 and efforts were shifted to completing additional analyses with the existing WIMP-scattering and...
The China Dark Matter Experiment (CDEX) aims at direct searches of light Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL) with an overburden of about 2400m rock. Results from CDEX-1B and CDEX-10 phase, and related technical development are reported. In addition, the progress of CJPL-II extension project will be introduced.
Direct searches for dark matter candidates require deep underground research facilities and specialised low background infrastructure and associated capabilities. As the dark matter community develops ever more sensitive detectors, the requirements placed on deep underground facilities and these capabilities become even more stringent. This talk will review recent progress within deep...
After the Cosmic Microwave Background photons decoupled from baryons, the Dark Ages epoch began: density fluctuations imprinted from earlier times grew under the influence of gravity, eventually collapsing into the first stars and galaxies during the subsequent Cosmic Dawn. In the early universe, most of the baryonic matter was in the form of neutral hydrogen, detectable via its ground state’s...
A deeper than expected absorption of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) by the 21-cm line hydrogen line at redshift 17 with flattened bottom has been observed using the Experiment to Detect the Global EoR signature (EDGES) instruments located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia. I will briefly describe EDGES and its calibration and how the performance has been...
Following the announcement in March 2018 of the discovery of the first gravitational-wave signal from a black-hole-binary merger, it was suggested that ~30-solar-mass black holes could make up the dark matter. Since then, a number of astrophysical probes or constraints to the scenario have been discussed. I will summarize these constraints and identify associated caveats for some as well as...
We report on results from the first run of the ADMX-G2 experiment, a haloscope search for dark matter axions. The search excludes the range of axion-photon couplings predicted by the DFSZ model for masses between 2.66 and 2.81 μeV. This unprecedented sensitivity is achieved by operating a large-volume haloscope at sub-kelvin temperatures, thereby reducing thermal noise as well as the excess...
The Haloscope At Yale Sensitive to Axion CDM (HAYSTAC) is a tunable microwave cavity experiment searching for axion dark matter in the galactic halo through the inverse Primakoff interaction, in which axions in a strong magnetic field are resonantly converted to microwave photons. In 2017, HAYSTAC excluded axion-photon couplings above ~2x10-14 GeV-1 for the axion mass range 23.15 <...
In this talk I begin by reviewing how dark matter axions can undergo Bose-Einstein condensation and why this is captured by classical field theory. I explain that such condensates are spatially localized clumps, as they are organized by gravitation and self-interactions, and they may populate the galaxy. I discuss both the ground state and finite angular momentum states. Also, I comment on...
COSINE-100 is a direct detection dark matter experiment consisting of 106 kg of low-background NaI(Tl) crystal detectors located at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory in South Korea. One of the primary physics goals of COSINE-100 is to search for a WIMP-induced annual modulation signal to confirm or refute DAMA/LIBRA’s claim of dark matter discovery. The search for an annual modulation signal...
For the minimal QCD axion model it is generally believed that overproduction of dark matter constrains the axion mass to be above a certain threshold, or at least that the initial misalignment angle must be tuned if the mass is below that threshold. We demonstrate that this is incorrect. During inflation, if the Hubble scale is low, the axion tends toward an equilibrium. This means the minimal...
We study the adiabatic conversion between the QCD axion and axion-like particle (ALP) at level crossing
which occurs when their masses become close to each other in the early universe. This is similar to the
Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein effect in neutrino oscillations. I explain a scenario where the ALP produced
by the adiabatic conversion of the QCD axion explains the observed dark matter...
Located at the 4850' level of the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, SD, the Majorana Demonstrator (MJD) experiment is searching for neutrinoless double beta decay in Ge-76 with high-purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors. The combination of low-activity materials of the Demonstrator and careful control of cosmic-ray exposure to the enriched Ge detectors have resulted in a...
An important topic in dark matter research is the search for sub-GeV dark matter. Direct detection searches for sub-GeV dark matter can be conducted through scattering on Silicon nuclei utilizing a detector with energy threshold on the order of 10 eV. This low threshold can be achieved by thermalizing a Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) based detector with gram scale silicon absorbers. This...
Ultra light bosonic dark matter like axion may form long-lived condensate. The longevity of the condensate can be understood by the approximate number conservation in the non-relativistic regime. The profile of condensate is obtained via the bounce method, just like Q-balls, as long as the number violating interaction is weak enough. I will discuss the decay processes of the condensate by the...
Dark matter is a main ingredient of the cosmos, its nature however is still in the dark. At present, after enormous progress in direct dark matter searches, the situation of this key question of today’s particle physics is controversial: DAMA/LIBRA observes an annual modulation signal at high confidence matching the expectation for dark matter. In the so-called standard scenario, however, the...
Motivated by various theoretical models, the direct search for dark matter (DM) at the sub-GeV/c² mass scale gained special interest during the last years. In case of individual DM-electron interactions in Si-semiconductor devices, this requires a readout noise level of less than 1e- RMS.
The Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor (DEPFET) with Repetitive Non Destructive Readout...
Although the $\Lambda$CDM model is in excellent agreement with the observed CMB, its prediction for the current rate of expansion of the universe is in tension with observations of the local universe at $ > 3 \sigma$. Furthermore, theoretically motivating a cosmological constant has proved difficult. In this talk, I will discuss a solution to the Hubble tension in the form of early dark...
Axion dark matter is commonly considered as a classical self-interacting scalar field condensate. This talk takes the axion as a quantum scalar field and shows how long the classical description is valid considering gravitational and contact self-interactions. When the axion field is homogeneus and interacts with itself by attractive forces, parametric resonance causes quanta to jump in pairs...
The latest release of the Noble Element Simulation Technique (NEST) is presented here. Noble element target media have become common in rare event searches, and an accurate comparison model is critical for understanding and predicting signals and unwanted backgrounds. Like its predecessors, NESTv2.0 is a simulation tool written in C++ and is based heavily on experimental data, taking into...
Single electron noise which persists for many milliseconds is known to follow ionizing events in liquid/gas xenon emission detectors. This noise can span multiple event windows and can pile up in time. Therefore it can be mistaken for a genuine signal. Delayed electron noise can be a limiting background to the low-energy threshold of dark matter searches, and could prevent discovery-class...
Light Dark Matter candidates have increasingly come under the focus of scientific interest. In particular the QCD axion is also able to solve other fundamental problems such as CP-conservation in strong interactions. Galactic axions and axion-like particles can be converted to photons at boundaries between materials of different dielectric constants under a strong magnetic field. Combining...
Neutron production in (alpha,n) reactions as one of the main contributors to the background in dark matter experiments is discussed. Several codes exist to calculate the neutron yields and spectra from the decays of naturally occurring isotopes in various materials giving sometimes quite different results. The comparison of different codes will be presented and the sources of differences...
The Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment (CASPEr) is a direct
Axion Like Particle (ALP) search. We use techniques analogous to Continuous Wave (CW)
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to set limits on the axion-nucleon coupling.
The axion field can exert a torque on nuclear spins either by the axion wind
effect or by inducing a time-varying Electric Dipole Moment (EDM) in the nucleon.
We here...
The p-type Point Contact Germanium (pPCGe) detector is used in light WIMPs searches by the China Dark matter EXperiment (CDEX). With better rise-time resolution, a category of extremely-fast events (EFEs) can be clearly recognized and its origin had been experimentally indentified. The analysis of EFEs could help to understand the background origins, which is very important for the detector...
Dual phase liquid/gas xenon time projection chambers (TPCs) currently set the worlds most sensitive limits on weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), a favored dark matter candidate. Radon and radon daughters produce problematic backgrounds for these searches. During detector construction, 222Rn and daughters plate out onto detector surfaces. While 222Rn has a half-life of 3.8 d, the...
A directional signal is thought to constitute strong evidence for dark
matter detection. Consequently, substantial work on directional dark matter
detection has been pursued and planned by the community. Directionality is
also important for studying the nature of the dark matter once a discovery
has been made. Gaseous detectors are prime candidates for directional
detectors, due to their...
The CYGNUS effort aims to produce a network of direction sensitive detectors able to probe below the neutrino floor and to reach into the low WIMP mass region with active discrimination against electron background. The new prospect of operation in both Southern and Northern hemisphere underground laboratories opens further possibilities. Latest progress with prototypes towards the goals of...
A variety of experiments have been developed over the past decades, aiming at the detection of Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their scattering in an instrumented medium. The sensitivity of these experiments has improved with a tremendous speed, thanks to a constant development of detectors and analysis methods. Detectors capable of reconstructing the direction of...
COSINE-100 is a dark matter direct detection experiment that uses low-background NaI(Tl) crystals to test the DAMA collaboration's claimed detection of the dark matter annual modulation. The first phase of the experiment, situated at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory in South Korea, consists of eight NaI(Tl) crystals with a total mass of 106 kg and 2000 liters of liquid scintillator as an...
The DAMIC (Dark Matter in CCDs) experiment employs the active silicon of
low-noise charge-coupled devices (CCDs) as a target to search for a
variety of dark matter candidates with masses below 10 GeV. An array of
seven 675-$\mu$m thick CCDs with a target mass of ~40 grams has been
collecting data at SNOLAB since early 2017. The collaboration has engaged
in an extensive campaign of...
In absence of an unambiguous dark matter signal direct searches need to cover a wide range of potential dark matter particle masses. Thanks to their low energy thresholds, cryogenic experiments push the low-mass frontier with CRESST opening up the sub-GeV/c$^2$ regime.
CRESST-III employs scintillating CaWO4 crystals as target material operated at mK temperatures. The phonon signal allows for a...
Most well-known results regarding the distribution of dark matter in the Universe are based upon dissipationless simulations of the cosmological evolution of dark matter only. I will discuss some generic ways in which baryonic processes alter the distribution of dark matter. I will begin with a discussion of the clustering of dark matter on few Mpc scales. Baryonic effects can alter dark...
The center of the Milky Way is predicted to be the brightest source of gamma rays produced by dark matter. An excess consistent with a dark matter annihilation signal has been observed in the data collected by Fermi LAT. Although these results are intriguing, the complexity involved in modeling the foreground and background emission from conventional astrophysical sources makes a conclusive...
Current and upcoming 21-cm measurements during the cosmic dawn can provide a new arena on the search for the cosmological dark matter. This era saw the formation of the first stars, which coupled the spin temperature of hydrogen to its kinetic temperature---producing 21-cm absorption in the CMB. The strength of this absorption acts as a thermostat, showing us if the baryons have been...
The cosmic microwave background has provided the most precise measurement of the dark matter (DM) abundance, and places stringent limits on its annihilation cross section. Yet, its nature remains unknown, motivating the exploration of non-standard models. In this talk I will discuss the imprints that such non-standard DM candidates may leave on CMB spectral distortions and anisotropy...
The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) is a direct dark matter search experiment designed to observe nuclear recoils induced by WIMPs. However, it is also sensitive to dark photons that kinetically mix to the Standard Model photon. This mixing allows dark photons to produce electron excitations through the photoelectric absorption, depositing an energy equal to the dark photon...
We are going to present the project for CYGNO, a 1kg gaseous TPC Dark Matter directional experiment, to be hosted at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. CYGNO (a CYGNus TPC with Optical readout) fits into the context of the wider CYGNUS collaboration, for the development of a Galactic Nuclear Recoil Observatory at the ton scale with directional sensitivity. The most innovative CYGNO's...
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are considered promising targets for indirect Dark Matter (DM) identification. The (mostly frequentist) analyses of gamma-ray photons originating from dSphs have allowed to set stringent limits on the DM self-annihilation cross-section. Conventional search strategies rely on quantifying the abundance of DM by calculating the so-called J-factor. This quantity...
Milky Way satellite galaxies are compelling targets for dark matter searches due to their proximity, high dark matter content, and low astrophysical backgrounds. Detailed studies of the stellar kinematics of satellite galaxies provide information on their dark matter content and velocity distribution. In this talk, I will discuss the systematic uncertainties in determining the dark matter...
NEWS-G (New Experiments With Spheres-Gas) proposes a new concept for the dark matter search, based on a spherical gaseous detector, the Spherical Proportional Counter (SPC). The detector has a large volume and single electron detection sensitivity and may be filled with light gaseous targets such as hydrogen, helium, and neon. The capabilities of the detector permit the extension of dark...
The Galactic Center GeV excess is firmly detected. While there is statistical evidence suggesting the excess originates largely from point sources, its interpretation as a signal of annihilating dark matter has not been conclusively ruled out. I will discuss the degree to which assumptions about the diffuse modeling and source populations could affect non-Poissonian template fitting methods...
TREX-DM (TPC Rare Event eXperiment for Dark Matter) is an approved experiment by the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) in Spain, intended to look specifically for low-mass WIMPs (<10 GeV) that could be pervading the galactic dark halo. This requires the use of light elements as target and detectors with very low energy threshold; TREX-DM is conceived to fulfil these requirements using a...
Indirect detection of dark matter through multiwavelength astronomical observations provides a promising avenue for understanding the particle nature of dark matter. In the case of dark matter consisting of weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs), self-annihilation ultimately produces a variety of observable products including gamma-rays that can be detected directly, as well as...
NEWAGE is a direction-sensitive direct dark matter search experiment. NEWAGE uses a micro-TPC with a detection volume of 30 by 30 by 41 cm^3 read by one of the MPGD variations, \mu-PIC. We have been performing underground measurement since 2013 with a new detector NEWAGE-0.3b’. The results from 430 days' measurement will be presented. In order to improve the sensitivities, we are developing a...
Deep, all-sky gamma-ray observations combined with recent discoveries of nearby dwarf galaxies have set the stage for the potential detection of dark matter annihilation. I will discuss a few issues, both conceptual and technical, required to rigorously establish the existence of a signal and to identify it as new physics. This includes assessing significance given limitations in our...
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) have long reigned as one of the leading classes of dark matter candidates. The observed dark matter abundance can be naturally obtained by freezeout of weak-scale dark matter annihilations in the early universe. This "thermal WIMP" scenario makes direct predictions for the total annihilation cross section that can be tested in present-day...
CRESST searches directly for dark matter (DM) with $\mathrm{CaWO_4}$ crystals operated as cryogenic calorimeters. It established leading limits for the spin-independent DM-nucleon scattering cross-section down to DM-particle masses of $350\,\mathrm{MeV/c^2}$. At this mass regime, the rejection power against electromagnetic background starts to degrade.
The background in the region of interest...
A promising path to detect dark matter is given by direct detection, i.e., detecting the recoil of dark matter particles in a target material by measurement of the energy deposited, as light, charge or heat. For the case of light dark matter (below 1 GeV) this approach is strongly connected to the highly non-trivial task of identifying appropriate materials having the necessary target...
We study the AMS-02 antiproton/proton ratio spectral-measurement in light of the recent advances done in parametrizing the impact of solar modulation of cosmic-rays, the antiproton production uncertainties from inelastic proton-proton collisions in the Galaxy as well as the interstellar medium uncertainties that pertain to the propagation of cosmic-rays in the Milky Way. We confirm previous...
COSINE-100 is a NaI(Tl) dark matter direct detection experiment, with the goal
of testing DAMA’s claim of dark matter detection by looking for an annual modulation signal. It consists of eight NaI(Tl) crystals, adding to a total of 106 kg, and 2000 liters of a liquid scintillator veto. Located at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory, South Korea, COSINE-100 has been running since September...
One of the primary goals of many direct dark matter (DM) experiments have been focused on detecting weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Usually, these searches assume a point-like contact interaction between DM and nucleons. However, it is possible that they interact with the exchange of a light mediator with masses comparable to the momentum transfer of the process involved, in...
CRESST is a direct dark matter detection experiment operating $CaWO_4$ target crystals as particle detectors at cryogenic temperatures. The third generation of CRESST detectors features nuclear recoil energy thresholds below $100eV$ combined with a sophisticated veto system for holder and surface related backgrounds in addition to the standard scintillation light based event-by-event particle...
The spectrum of Weakly-Interacting-Massive-Particle (WIMP) dark matter generically possesses bound states when the WIMP mass becomes sufficiently large relative to the mass of the electroweak gauge bosons. The presence of these bound states enhances the annihilation rate via resonances in the Sommerfeld enhancement, but they can also be produced directly with the emission of a low-energy...
Paleodetectors provide an alternative approach to the detection of Dark Matter–nucleon interactions. One can search for the persistent traces left by Dark Matter scattering in ancient minerals obtained from much deeper than current underground laboratories. The sensitivity of paleo-detectors extends down to the neutrino floor for a wide range of Dark Matter masses. With readily available...
