Related papers: WIMP Searches at the ILC using a model-independent…
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…
Dark Matter particles are commonly assumed to be weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with a mass in the GeV to TeV range. However, recent interest has shifted towards lighter WIMPs, which are more difficult to probe experimentally.…
We report on a search for low-energy (E < 20 keV) WIMP-induced nuclear recoils using data collected in 2009 - 2010 by EDELWEISS from four germanium detectors equipped with thermal sensors and an electrode design (ID) which allows to…
The CoGeNT and CRESST WIMP direct detection experiments have recently observed excesses of nuclear recoil events, while the DAMA/LIBRA experiment has a long standing annual modulation signal. It has been suggested that these excesses may be…
In the present work we examine the possibility for detecting electrons in dark matter searches. These detectors are considered to be the most appropriate for detecting light dark matter particles in the MeV region. We analyze theoretically…
The annihilation of Weakly Interactive Massive Particles (WIMP) in the centre of the sun could give rise to neutrino fluxes. We study the prospects of searching for these neutrinos at the upcoming Iron CALorimeter (ICAL) detector to be…
We perform a low-mass dark matter search using an exposure of 30\,kg$\times$yr with the XENON100 detector. By dropping the requirement of a scintillation signal and using only the ionization signal to determine the interaction energy, we…
We discuss strategies to make inferences on the thermal relic abundance of a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) when the same effective dimension-six operator that explains an experimental excess in direct detection is assumed to…
BULLKID-DM is an experiment designed for the direct searches of particle dark matter candidates with mass around 1 GeV, or below, and cross-section with nucleons smaller than $10^{-40}$ cm$^2$. The detector consists of a stack of diced…
Multiply-interacting massive particles (MIMPs) are heavy (>10^10 GeV/c^2) dark matter particles that interact strongly with regular matter, but may have evaded detection due to the low number density required to make up the local dark…
Spin-dependent WIMP searches have traditionally presented results within an odd group approximation and by suppressing one of the spin-dependent interaction cross sections. We here elaborate on a model-independent analysis in which…
Assuming that cosmological dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles, we use the recent precise measurement of cosmological parameters to predict the guaranteed rates of production of such particles in association with…
The WIMP "miracle" suggests a new physics threshold ranging from the weak scale up to several tens of TeVs. Obtaining the correct dark matter density in many theories aiming to solve the hierarchy problem may thus require some amount of…
Serious searches for the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) have now begun. In this context, the most important questions that need to be addressed are: "To what extent can we constrain the WIMP models in the future?" and "What will…
The hierarchical clustering observed in cold dark matter simulations results in highly clumped galactic halos. If the dark matter in our halo is made of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), their annihilation products should be…
The recent WMAP and Planck data have confirmed that exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) dominate in the flat Universe. Many extensions of the standard model provide dark matter candidates, in…
The report describes the research program on the development of ultra-low-energy germanium detectors, with emphasis on WIMP dark matter searches. A threshold of 100 eV is achieved with a 20 g detector array, providing a unique probe to the…
We examine a real electroweak triplet scalar field as dark matter, abandoning the requirement that its relic abundance is determined through freeze out in a standard cosmological history (a situation which we refer to as a 'miracle-less…
We present constraints on the existence of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) from an 11 kg-day target exposure of the DAMIC experiment at the SNOLAB underground laboratory. The observed energy spectrum and spatial distribution of…
In the last decade direct detection Dark Matter (DM) experiments have increased enormously their sensitivity and ton-scale setups have been proposed, especially using germanium and xenon targets with double readout and background…