Events Calendar
An Accelerator-Produced, Sub-GeV Dark Matter Search with the MiniBooNE Neutrino Detector
Tuesday March 8, 2016
| 2:00 pm
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Presenter: | Dr. Robert Cooper, NM State |
|---|---|---|
| Series: | Nuclear, Particle, Astroparticle and Cosmology (NUPAC) Seminars | |
| Abstract: | There is overwhelming observational evidence from cosmology and astrophysics for the existence of dark matter. For two decades, a significant experimental program has been undertaken to search for the non-gravitation interactions of dark matter with deep underground detectors. These searches are characterized by low-energy nuclear recoils, but lose sensitivity below a WIMP mass of about 1~GeV. In contrast, sub-GeV dark matter searches are well-motivated because traditional direct searches have yet to confirm a WIMP signal. The MiniBooNE experiment is searching for accelerator-produced, low-mass dark matter with the Booster Neutrino Beamline at Fermilab. To suppress neutrino elastic scattering backgrounds, the 8.9~GeV proton beam hits a steel beamstop while operating in a beam-off-target configuration with no focusing horn. The low-mass dark matter particles are part of a rich dark sector that couples to the Standard Model via a sub-GeV vector portal particle. The accelerator-boosted dark matter particles can elastically scatter with high-energy deposit on nucleons and electrons in the large detector volume and are reconstructed with high efficiency. MiniBooNE has completed its experimental run with $1.86 times 10 ^{20}$ protons-on-target and analysis is underway. In this talk, I will discuss low-mass, vector-mediated WIMP dark matter models, describe the MiniBooNE detector and the beam-off-target experiment, and summarize the expected sensitivity from the final analysis. | |
| Host: | Dinesh Loomba | |
| Location: | PAIS-2540, PAIS | |
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