Physics Colloquium

Prof. Rupak Mahapatra, Texas A&M University

"Searches for Dark Matter"

4:00pm, The John A. Wheeler Lecture Hall (RLM 4.102).

Coffee and cookies will be served at 3:45pm in RLM 4.102.

Abstract: Understanding the nature of the dark matter, that dominates the matter content of our universe, is a very exciting prospect for the next generation direct detection experiments, such as SuperCDMS and LZ. Direct detection of dark matter is very challenging due to small energy deposit from rare recoils on terrestrial detectors compounded by radioactive background. The SuperCDMS experiment is one of the only three next generation (G2) direct detection experiments approved by DOE and NSF from more than a dozen competing prototype experiments. Our group is developing low-threshold cryogenic semiconductor (Germanium and Silicon) detector technology that provides unprecedented low mass dark matter search capabilities to SuperCDMS. These next generation dark matter search experiments will eventually run in to an irreducible background from solar and atmospheric neutrinos that would coherently scattering on our detector - a process similar to the dark matter scattering. I will discuss efforts underway to detect and understand the coherent neutrino scattering (CNS) of reactor neutrinos on our low threshold detectors. This may provide means to search for dark matter beyond the neutrino background floor in a G3 experiment. I will also review other current direct detection techniques, as well as results from indirect searches for dark matter.