Introduction to dark matter experiments

Abstract

This is a set of four lectures presented at the Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI-09) in June 2009. I provide an introduction to experiments designed to detect WIMP dark matter directly, focusing on building intuitive understanding of the characteristics of potential WIMP signals and the experimental techniques. After deriving the characteristics of potential signals in direct-detection experiments for standard WIMP models, I summarize the general experimental methods shared by most direct-detection experiments and review the advantages, challenges, and status of such searches (as of late 2009). Experiments are already probing SUSY models, with best limits on the spin-independent coupling below 10^-7 pb.

64 pages, 25 figures, based on lectures at 2009 Theoretical Advanced Study Institute in Elementary Particle Physics (TASI), Boulder, Colorado. This posted version benefits from some editing relative to the version in the published proceedings

References in corpus (44)

• Five-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Interpretation
• Observation of an anomalous positron abundance in the cosmic radiation
• Dark Matter Candidates from Particle Physics and Methods of Detection
• Results from the Final Exposure of the CDMS II Experiment
• The RAVE Survey: Constraining the Local Galactic Escape Speed
• The DAMA/LIBRA apparatus
• Inelastic Dark Matter in Light of DAMA/LIBRA
• WIMP dark matter, Higgs exchange and DAMA
• First results from a Dark Matter search with liquid Argon at 87 K in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory
• Evidence Of Dark Matter Annihilations In The WMAP Haze
• The case for a directional dark matter detector and the status of current experimental efforts
• Results from the First Science Run of the ZEPLIN-III Dark Matter Search Experiment
• Improved Spin-Dependent WIMP Limits from a Bubble Chamber
• Commissioning Run of the CRESST-II Dark Matter Search
• Experimental constraints on a dark matter origin for the DAMA annual modulation effect
• Design and Performance of the XENON10 Dark Matter Experiment
• Mirror dark matter and the new DAMA/LIBRA results: A simple explanation for a beautiful experiment
• Scintillation efficiency and ionization yield of liquid xenon for mono-energetic nuclear recoils down to 4 keV
• Discrimination of nuclear recoils from alpha particles with superheated liquids
• The ZEPLIN-III dark matter detector: instrument design, manufacture and commissioning
• New limits on spin-independent and spin-dependent couplings of low-mass WIMP dark matter with a germanium detector at a threshold of 220 eV
• First underground results with NEWAGE-0.3a direction-sensitive dark matter detector
• First results of the EDELWEISS-II WIMP search using Ge cryogenic detectors with interleaved electrodes
• Identification of Dark Matter particles with LHC and direct detection data
• Direct detection of WIMPs
• Limits on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross-sections from the first science run of the ZEPLIN-III experiment
• Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter: Direct Detection vis-a-vis LHC
• A Search for Dark Matter Annihilation with the Whipple 10m Telescope
• Observation of the 'head-tail' effect in nuclear recoils of low-energy neutrons
• First measurement of the Head-Tail directional nuclear recoil signature at energies relevant to WIMP dark matter searches
• The expected background spectrum in NaI dark matter detectors and the DAMA result
• Scintillation of liquid neon from electronic and nuclear recoils
• The Maximum Patch Method for Directional Dark Matter Detection
• Status of the LUX Dark Matter Search
• Discovery of underground argon with low level of radioactive 39Ar and possible applications to WIMP dark matter detectors
• A prototype of a directional detector for non-baryonic dark matter search: MIMAC (Micro-TPC Matrix of Chambers)
• CDMS-II to SuperCDMS: WIMP search at a zeptobarn
• Self-shielding effect of a single phase liquid xenon detector for direct dark matter search
• The ArDM project: a Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiment based on Liquid Argon
• The CRESST-II Experiment
• Measuring the local dark matter density
• The EDELWEISS-II experiment
• DARWIN: dark matter WIMP search with noble liquids
• Determination of Dark Matter Properties at High-Energy Colliders

Cited by in corpus (21)

• The Waning of the WIMP? A Review of Models, Searches, and Constraints
• Dark matter direct-detection experiments
• The Waning of the WIMP: Endgame?
• Ring-like features in directional dark matter detection
• Dark Matter Direct Detection of Classical WIMPs
• DAMA vs. the annually modulated muon background
• Measurement of Muon Annual Modulation and Muon-Induced Phosphorescence in NaI(Tl) Crystals with DM-Ice17
• Particle detection at cryogenic temperatures with undoped CsI
• Anapole moment of the lightest neutralino in the cMSSM
• Orbital perturbations due to massive rings
• Sensitivity of alkali halide scintillating calorimeters with particle identification to investigate the DAMA dark matter detection claim
• A Minimal Model of Torsion Mediated Dark Matter
• Baryogenesis and Asymmetric Dark Matter from The Left-Right Mirror Symmetric Model
• The CYGNO experiment, a directional detector for direct Dark Matter searches
• Pandax-4T limits on $Z^{\prime }$ mass in 3-3-1LHN model
• Analysis of defect formation in semiconductor cryogenic bolometric detectors created by heavy dark matter
• Characterisation of Dark Matter in Direct Detection Experiments: Singlino Versus Higgsino
• A Model of Neutrino Mass, Baryon Asymmetry, and Asymmetric Dark Matter with $SU(2{)}_D\otimes U(1{)}_{D^{\prime }}$ Dark Sector
• A Left-Right Mirror Symmetric Model: Common Origin of Neutrino Mass, Baryon Asymmetry and Dark Matter
• The Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry and Cold Dark Matter from The Left-Right Mirror Symmetric Model with The Global $U(1{)}_{B-L}\otimes U(1{)}_D$
• A Model of Asymmetric Hadronic Dark Matter and Leptogenesis