Dark Matter Search with liquid Noble Gases

Abstract

Dark matter detectors using the liquid noble gases xenon and argon as WIMP targets have evolved rapidly in the last decade and will continue to play a major role in the field. Due to the possibility to scale these detectors to larger masses relatively easily, noble liquids will likely be the first technology realizing a detector with a ton-scale target mass. In this article, we summarize the basic concepts of liquid noble gas dark matter detectors and review the current experimental status.

8 pages, 3 figures; to appear in the Proceedings of the 47th Rencontres de Moriond, 2012, Cosmology Session