Direct Dark Matter Searches
Abstract
For many working in particle physics and cosmology successful discovery and characterisation of the new particles that most likely explain the non-baryonic cold dark matter, known to comprise the majority of matter in the Universe, would be the most significant advance in physics for a century. Reviewed here is the current status of direct searches for such particles, in particular the so-called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), together with a brief overview of the possible future direction of the field extrapolated from recent advances. Current best limits are at or below 10-7 pb for spin-independent neutralino coupling, sufficient that experiments are already probing SUSY models. However, new detectors with tonne-scale mass and/or capability to correlate signal events to our motion through the Galaxy will likely be needed to determine finally whether WIMPs exist.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0705.3345,
title = {Direct Dark Matter Searches},
author = {N. J. Spooner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0705.3345},
year = {2009}
}