The DarkSide-50 experiment uses a two-phase argon time projection chamber to directly search for dark matter interactions. The energy threshold of the detector can be lowered by including ionization-only events. While background rejection is lost, DarkSide-50's sensitivity is expanded to sub-GeV dark matter candidates. The DarkSide-50’s expanded search for several dark matter candidates with...
DEAP-3600 is a single phase direct dark matter detector located at SNOLAB in Ontario, Canada. 255 photomultiplier tubes surround a spherical acrylic vessel to detect scintillation light from ~3300 kg of liquid argon. DEAP-3600 was designed to search for spin independent weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and holds the leading WIMP exclusion using liquid argon.
Identifying...
The COSINUS experiment (Cryogenic Observatory for SIgnatures seen in Next generation Underground Searches) is a low-threshold, cryogenic experiment being set up at Laboratori Nazionali Del Gran Sasso, Italy. It aims to provide a model independent cross-check of the DAMA/LIBRA findings of a potential dark matter-like modulation signal.
COSINUS utilizes a two-channel readout system based on...
DarkSide run since mid 2015 a 50-kg-active-mass dual phase Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (TPC), filled with low radioactivity argon from an underground source and produced world class results for both the low mass (𝑀<20 𝐺𝑒𝑉/c2) and high mass (𝑀>100 𝐺𝑒𝑉/𝑐2) direct detection search for dark matter.
The next stage of the DarkSide program will be a new generation experiment involving a...
The SuperCDMS Collaboration is currently building a direct dark matter detection experiment at SNOLAB (Canada) consisting of an array of germanium and silicon crystals, with a total payload of 25 kg and 3.6 kg, respectively. Each crystal is instrumented to measure either a combination of phonon and ionization signals (iZIP detectors) or the phonon signal caused by charge carriers via the...
A range of haloscope searches are currently probing axions in the mass range ~2-40 μeV. However, simulations of the axion field in the early Universe are increasingly pointing towards heavier masses if we want the axion to comprise all of the Dark Matter in the Universe. I will briefly review these developments and then I will present The Canfranc Axion Detection Experiment (CADEx), a proposed...
The CYGNUS proto-collaboration aims to establish a Galactic Directional Recoil Observatory at the ton-scale that could test the DM hypothesis beyond the Neutrino Floor and measure the coherent and elastic scattering of neutrinos from the Sun and possibly Supernovae. A unique capability of CYGNUS will be the detailed measurement of topology and direction of low-energy nuclear and electron...
The SABRE (Sodium iodide with Active Background REjection) experiment aims to detect an annual rate modulation from dark matter interactions in ultra-high purity NaI(Tl) crystals in order to provide a model independent test of the signal observed by DAMA/LIBRA. It is made up of two separate detectors; SABRE South located at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), in regional...
This talk presents a novel approach to dark matter direct detection using anomaly aware machine learning techniques in the DARWIN next-generation dark matter direct detection experiment. I will introduce a semi-unsupervised deep learning pipeline that falls under the umbrella of generalized Simulation Based Inference (SBI), an approach that allows one to effectively learn likelihoods straight...
In this talk, I will explore the potential for uncovering new neutrino physics through the use of dark matter direct detection experiments and its complementarity with spallation source experiments. In particular, I will analyse the Sterile Baryonic Neutrino Model, an extension of the SM in which we add a sterile massive neutrino. I will show how the sterile neutrino can be generated through...
Dark matter particles with sub-GeV masses can be notoriously difficult to probe, because their typical momenta are insufficient to induce nuclear recoils above the thresholds of conventional direct detection experiments. In fact, it has repeatedly been claimed that even very strongly interacting dark matter could hide in this mass range, supposedly evading all observational bounds. In this...
The evidence for the existence of non-baryonic dark matter is overwhelming, coming from many different scales. However, there are still no positive signals. Indeed, the upper limits from direct detection have improved by several orders of magnitude in the last decades. In this talk, we will discuss several novel directions in WIMP model-building. We will analyse different scenarios (complex...
FIMP dark matter is produced via the freeze-in mechanism that generally implies tiny couplings between the Dark Matter (DM) and the Standard Model particles, making DM direct detection hopeless. When the interaction is non-renormalizable the coupling is automatically suppressed by the scale of new physics and the production depends strongly on the reheating temperature. A natural candidate, in...
Despite the wealth of gravitational evidence, little is known about the nature of dark matter. Searches for dark matter with liquid xenon (LXe) Time Projection Chamber (TPC) experiments have focused on the traditional mass range of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter candidates from a few GeV/$c^2$ to hundreds of TeV/$c^2$. The lack of WIMP signal thus far motivates a...
We are going to present the CYGNO/INITIUM project for the development of an high precision optical readout gaseous Time Projection Chamber (TPC) for directional Dark Matter search and solar neutrino spectroscopy, to be hosted at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). CYGNO peculiar features are the use of sCMOS cameras and PMTs coupled to GEMs amplification of an helium-fluorine based gas...
The presence of dark matter can explain several observations in the universe. However, its nature is still unknown. Therefore, the study of dark matter is a rapidly evolving field. New techniques and methods are being applied all the time. The measurement of the direction of WIMP-induced nuclear recoils is a challenging strategy to extend dark matter searches beyond the neutrino floor...
We employ a non-relativistic effective theory to model dark matter (DM) induced electron ejections from graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), materials currently in the R&D phase for direct detection experiments. The material properties of graphene are modelled using Density Functional Theory, and we obtain observable ejection rates for arbitrary forms of scalar and spin-1/2 DM. We show how...
To date, the majority of experimental dark matter searches have been focused on the on the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) in the 100-1000 GeV/c^2 mass range, which would be a natural extension to the Standard Model. However, there are well-motivated theoretical models which postulate that the properties and interactions of dark matter in the early universe generated the abundance...
Minerals are solid state nuclear track detectors - nuclear recoils in a mineral leave latent damage to the crystal structure. Depending on the mineral and its temperature, the damage features are retained in the material from minutes to timescales much larger than the age of the Solar System. The damage features from the fission fragments left by spontaneous fission of heavy unstable isotopes...
As the WIMP draws under increasing tension thanks to the ever increasing sensitivity of direct detection experiments, the majority of dark matter parameter space outside of the weak scale remains unexplored. Molecular and nano-scale systems are particularly well-suited to look for sub-GeV DM since their eV-scale electronic transitions may be excited through light dark matter interactions....
