Dark matter searches

Dark matter searches with detector arrays up to several tens of kilograms. 

Update of the Proposal to LNGS for a Second Phase of the CRESST Dark Matter Search, MPI-PhE/ 2001-02... 

Figure 163. Neutrinos as dark matter. Relic density of a thermal Dirac neutrino with standard-model interactions, together with current constraints from cosmology, accelerators (LEP), and dark matter searches. See text for explanations. (The dark matter band is quite generous in light of the WMAP measurements.)...

Figure 16.17. Complementarity of direct and indirect neutralino dark matter searches. The figure shows that several supersymmetric models that are within the (expected) reach of a big neutrino telescope of 10 km2 yr exposure are beyond the reach of current and future direct detection experiments. The vertical axis is the product of the neutralino-proton spin-independent scattering cross section

Abazajian, K., Fuller, G. M., Patel, M. 2001. Sterile neutrino hot, warm, and cold dark matter, Phys. Rev. D64, 023501 Abrams, D., et al. [CDMS Collaboration] 2002. Exclusion limits on the WIMP nucleon cross-section from the cryogenic dark matter search, Phys. Rev. 

Akerib, D. S., et al. [CDMS Collaboration] 2003. New results from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment, Phys. Rev. D68, 082002 Allanach, B. C., Kraml, S. Porod, W. 2003. Theoretical uncertainties in sparticle mass predictions from computational tools, JHEP 0303, 016 Aschenbach, B., Grosso, N., Porquet, D., Predehl, P. 2004. X-ray flares reveal mass and angular momentum of the Galactic Center black hole. Preprint astro-ph/0401589... 

Bernabei, R., et al. 2003. Dark matter search, Riv. Nuovo Cim. 26, 1 Binetruy, P, Girardi, G., Salati, P. 1984. Constraints On A System Of Two Neutral Fermions From Cosmology, Nucl. Phys. B237, 285 Birrell, N. D. Davies, P. C. W., 1982. Quantum Fields in Curved Space (Cambridge Cambridge UniversityPress)... 

Snowden-Ifft, D. R, Martoff, C. J., Burwell, J. M. 2000. Low pressure negative ion drift chamber for dark matter search, Phys. Rev. D61, 101301 Spergel, D. N. Steinhardt, P J. 2000. Observational Evidence for Self-Interacting Cold Dark Matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3760 Spergel, D. N., et al. 2003. First-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations Determination of Cosmological Parameters, ApJS 148,175... 

The home page of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search Experiment... 

The search for weakly interacting particle, which may constitute the dark matter in the universe. The elucidation of the nature of this dark matter is one of the most pressing problems in astrophysics and in cosmology. 

These same physicist astronomers, today called astroparticle physicists, are currently setting up and line-tuning traps for neutralinos, hypothesised particles of dark matter. These are just as subtle as neutrinos, but much rarer and much more massive. For the moment, the search has been fruitless, but patience is a virtue in the hunt for the invisible. 

A major scientific experiment devoted to the search for antimatter originating from outside of our galaxy is presently being conducted by NASA. The experiment is a part of the project aiming at studies of matter, antimatter and dark matter in space. This project, coordinated by the Department of Energy (DOE), is a large collaboration of more than 30 universities, and will be conducted with the help of a state-of-the-art... 

The search of dark matter can be illustrated with the words of Sherlock Holmes When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth (cited by Binney Tremaine 1987). 

Neutrinos can be cold dark matter if their masses are around few GeV or a TeV. However, fourth-generation heavy neutrinos lighter than 45 GeV are excluded by the measurement of the Z-boson decay width at the Large Electron-Positron collider at CERN. Moreover, direct searches for WIMP dark matter in our galaxy exclude Dirac neutrinos heavier than 0.5 GeV as the dominant component of the galactic dark halo (see Figure 3). Thus although heavy Dirac neutrinos could still be a tiny part of the halo dark matter, they cannot solve the cold dark matter problem. 

Cosmological constraints on supersymmetric models are very powerful, and may even serve as a guidance in searching for supersymmetry. This partially justifies the extensive literature on the subject. The neutralino as dark matter is certainly fashionable. ... 

To illustrate how we can find out if dark matter is made of elementary particles, we have used neutralino dark matter as our guinea pig to survey several methods to search for non-baryonic dark matter. These methods range from a direct detection of dark matter particles in the laboratory to indirect observation of their annihilation products produced in the core of the Sun or of the Earth and in galactic halos, including our own. Direct searches may have found a signal from WIMPs (the annual modulation), but this claim is highly controversial... 

The history of the elements is in many ways the history of chemistry and physics. Before the search for the elements, there was the philosophical question of what was an element. That question was posed more than 2,500 years ago, and it has had many solutions. Each in turn has given way to a new answer that was made possible by new theories, new tools, and new observations. Our current answer to what constitute an element looks like it has staying power, since it fits so well with so many other aspects of our understanding of chemistry and physics, but there are still aspects of matter that are unresolved. Future work on the origin of matter in the universe, work on dark matter and anti-matter, on superstrings and the interior of subatomic particles, could alter our understanding of the elements. 

The search for rare processes, such as proton decay, neutrino oscillations, neutrinoless beta decay, precise measurements of parameters of known particles, experimental searches for dark matter represent the widely known forms of such means. 

AMS will search for dark matter through antimatter from these annihilation channels. Electron and positron fluxes will be detected up to 300 GeV and antiproton flux up to 400 GeV. After 3 years, AMS-02 will collect 107 e with E < 10 GeV, 106 e+ with E < 5 GeV and 106 p with E < 5 GeV (Figure 3). AMS will also contribute to the study of gamma diffuse background, both galactic and extragalactic and gamma source location [4],... 

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