Direct Detection of Cold Dark Matter with XENON and CDMS

par Prof. Baudis Laura (Zurich)

vendredi 27 juin 2008, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Paris

Abstract: We have strong evidence on all cosmic scales, from galaxies to the largest structures ever observed, that about 95% of matter in our Universe is dark, revealing its presence only by its gravitational attraction. Although the amount of dark matter and its distribution are fairly well established, we are clueless regarding its composition. Leading candidates are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which are 'cold' thermal relics of the Big Bang, ie moving non-relativistically at the time of structure formation. I will review current searches for these hypothetical particles via elastic scattering from nuclei in deep underground detectors, with focus on the XENON and CDMS experiments. XENON is located at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory in Italy, using liquid xenon as the WIMP target. CDMS is at the Soudan Mine in Minnesota, using Ge and Si semiconductor detectors cooled to about 20 mK. Currently, these experiments set the best limits on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon interactions, and spin-dependent interactions for pure neutron couplings.

Slides baudis_annecy_08.pdf.pdf