Related papers: Nuclear target effect on dark matter detection rat…
These lectures are intended to provide a brief pedagogical review of dark matter for the newcomer to the subject. We begin with a discussion of the astrophysical evidence for dark matter. The standard weakly-interacting massive particle…
We briefly review some theoretical issues involved in the direct detection of supersymmetric (SUSY) dark matter. After a brief discussion of the allowed SYSY parameter space we focus on the determination of the traditional neutralino…
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…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which are among the best motivated dark matter (DM) candidates, could make up all or only a fraction of the total DM budget. We consider a scenario in which WIMPs are a sub-dominant DM…
The direct detection rate for supersymmetric cold dark matter (CDM) particles is calculated for a number of suitable nuclear targets. Both the coherent and spin contributions are considered. By considering representative phenomenologically…
We review theoretically well-motivated dark-matter candidates, and pathways to their discovery, in the light of recent results from collider physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. Taken in aggregate, these encourage broader thinking in…
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are amongst the most interesting dark matter (DM) candidates. Many DM candidates naturally arise in theories beyond the standard model (SM) of particle physics, like weak-scale supersymmetry…
Event rates for dark matter detectors in neutralino--nucleus scattering are studied for supergravity unified models, including the constraint arising from the $b\rightarrow s\gamma$ experiment. The recent experimental measurement of this…
We compute the neutralino direct detection rate in non-standard cosmological scenarios where neutralinos account for the dark matter of the Universe. Significant differences are found when such rates are compared with those predicted by the…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. We developed a model-independent method for determining the WIMP mass by using data (i.e., measured recoil energies) of direct detection…
Various methods of searching for supersymmetric dark matter are sensitive to WIMPs with different properties. One consequence of this is that the phenomenology of dark matter detection can vary dramatically in different supersymmetric…
The DAMA annual modulation signature, interpreted as evidence for a spin-independent WIMP coupling, seems in conflict with null results from CDMS. However, in models of ``inelastic dark matter'', the experiments are compatible. Inelastic…
In direct dark matter detection experiments, conventional elastic scattering of WIMPs results in exponentially falling recoil spectra. In contrast, theories of WIMPs with excited states can lead to nuclear recoil spectra that peak at finite…
The nature of dark matter (DM) remains one of the biggest mysteries in physics today. Dark matter direct detection experiments look for nuclear recoil signals from DM-nucleus elastic scattering, which can be used to characterise DM. Nuclear…
We consider the prospects for the detection of relatively light dark matter through direct annihilation to neutrinos. We specifically focus on the detection possibilities of water Cherenkov and liquid scintillator neutrino detection…
We present formalism necessary to determine weak-scale matching coefficients in the computation of scattering cross sections for putative dark matter candidates interacting with the Standard Model. Particular attention is paid to the…
Extensive searches to probe the particle nature of dark matter (DM) have been going on for some decades now but, so far, no conclusive evidence has been found. Among various options, the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) remains…
Future dark matter (DM) direct detection searches will be subject to irreducible neutrino backgrounds that will challenge the identification of an actual WIMP signal in experiments without directionality sensitivity. We study the impact of…
In this paper we review the theoretical issues involved in the direct detection of supersymmetric (SUSY) dark matter. After a brief discussion of the allowed SYSY parameter space we focus on the determination of the traditional neutralino…
Recently the DAMA/NaI Collaboration reported further indication of a possible modulation effect in WIMP direct detection. In this note we discuss the relevance of this result for supersymmetric theories where the neutralino is the dark…