Related papers: DMTPC: A dark matter detector with directional sen…
Over the past decades, several ideas and technologies have been developed to directly detect WIMP from the galactic halo. All these detection strategies share the common goal of discriminating a WIMP signal from the residual backgrounds. By…
The existence of dark matter as evidenced by numerous indirect observations is one of the most important indications that there must be physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. This article reviews the concepts of direct…
New techniques for the laboratory direct detection of dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are sensitive to the recoil direction of the struck nuclei. We compute and compare the directional recoil rates…
We developed a three-dimensional gaseous tracking device and performed a direction-sensitive dark matter search in a surface laboratory. By using 150 Torr carbon-tetrafluoride (CF_4 gas), we obtained a sky map drawn with the recoil…
We review various issues related to the direct detection of constituents of dark matter, which are assumed to be Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). We specifically consider heavy WIMPs such as: 1) The lightest supersymmetric…
There is currently vast evidence for Dark Matter (DM) from astronomical observations. However, in spite of tremendous efforts by large experimental groups, there is no confirmed direct detection of the dark matter in our galaxy. Recent…
The DAMIC (Dark Matter in CCDs) experiment uses high resistivity, scientific grade CCDs to search for dark matter. The CCD's low electronic noise allows an unprecedently low energy threshold of a few tens of eV that make it possible to…
Coherent scattering of solar, atmospheric and diffuse supernovae neutrinos creates an irreducible background for direct dark matter experiments with sensitivities to WIMP-nucleon spin-independent scattering cross-sections of…
A negative ion micro time projection chamber (NI$\mu$TPC) was developed and its performance studied. An NI$\mu$TPC is a novel technology that enables the measurement of absolute $z$ coordinates for self-triggering TPCs. This technology…
Directional detection of galactic Dark Matter is a promising search strategy for discriminating genuine WIMP events from background ones. However, to take full advantage of this powerful detection method, one need to be able to extract…
There is considerable experimental effort dedicated to the directional detection of particle dark matter. Gaseous mu-TPC detectors present the privileged features of being able to reconstruct the track and the energy of the recoil nucleus…
Astrophysical and cosmological observations suggest the existence of beyond standard model ingredient known as dark matter (DM). One of the most supported class of theories suggests that DM is composed of weakly interactive massive…
The DAMIC (Dark Matter in CCDs) experiment searches for the interactions of dark matter particles with the nuclei and the electrons in the silicon bulk of thick fully depleted charge-coupled devices (CCDs). Because of the low noise and low…
The magnetic inelastic dark matter (MiDM) model, in which dark matter inelastically scatters off nuclei through a magnetic dipole interaction, has previously been shown to reconcile the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal with null results…
The Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are among the main candidates for the relic dark matter (DM). The idea of the direct DM detection relies on elastic in-dependent (SD) and spin-independent (SI) interaction of WIMPs with…
We have developed a micro-tpc using a pixelized bulk micromegas coupled to dedicated acquisition electronics as a read-out allowing to reconstruct the three dimensional track of a few keV recoils. The prototype has been tested with the…
Direct detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) can provide strong evidence of their existence and the directional method would have an advantage over other methods to detect the clear signal of WIMPs. Time projection…
We consider the prospects to use polarized dark-matter detectors to discriminate between various dark-matter models. If WIMPs are fermions and participate in parity-violating interactions with ordinary matter, then the recoil-direction and…
The recent WMAP data have confirmed that exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) dominate in the flat Universe. Modern particle theories naturally provide viable cold dark matter candidates with masses in…
Directional dark matter detection attempts to measure the direction of motion of nuclei recoiling after having interacted with dark matter particles in the halo of our Galaxy. Due to Earth's motion with respect to the Galaxy, the dark…