Nuclear, Particle, Astroparticle and Cosmology (NUPAC) Seminars
Searching for Dark Matter Beyond the Neutrino Floor
Presented by Alex Mills (UNM)
The observational evidence and theoretical support for dark matter is well established, ranging from the rotation curves of stars in galaxies to the acoustic imprint of matter on the cosmic microwave background. Nevertheless, the exact nature of dark matter remains elusive, with many competing models and motivations. The standard cosmological model, ΛCDM, favors a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle, but searches for these WIMPs have so far come up empty. The search for WIMPs is far from over, with the development of many new, clever detector designs paving the way forward. However, a daunting challenge faced by the next generation experiments will be due to neutrino coherent scattering, resulting in an irreducible background. Getting below this "neutrino floor" will require being able to differentiate neutrinos from WIMPs, which is best done by detecting the direction of the incoming particle. In this talk I will discuss future prospects of using directional detectors towards this goal.
2:00 pm, Tuesday, April 30, 2019
PAIS-2540, PAIS
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