Astrophysical evidence indicates that dark matter is five times more abundant that the normal matter that we interact with daily. A candidate for dark matter is the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) which we attempt to see via its rare interactions with a target material in the laboratory. Liquid xenon time projection chambers have proved a robust technology for rare event searches, and the LUX experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD has updated its sensitivity to spin-independent and spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions to have world-leading limits. LUX will not be the final word in dark matter searches, and a number of direct detection experiments will be turning on in the coming years that will cover significant WIMP mass ranges and interaction cross-sections.
1080 Physics Research Building - Smith Seminar Room - Smith Seminar Room - reception at 3:45pm in the Atrium Department of Physics physics@osu.edu America/New_York publicAstrophysical evidence indicates that dark matter is five times more abundant that the normal matter that we interact with daily. A candidate for dark matter is the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) which we attempt to see via its rare interactions with a target material in the laboratory. Liquid xenon time projection chambers have proved a robust technology for rare event searches, and the LUX experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD has updated its sensitivity to spin-independent and spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions to have world-leading limits. LUX will not be the final word in dark matter searches, and a number of direct detection experiments will be turning on in the coming years that will cover significant WIMP mass ranges and interaction cross-sections.
