Prof. Rouven Essig (TBA) " Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter"

Abstract:
Dark matter makes up 85% of the matter in our Universe, but we have yet to learn its identity.  A broad array of search strategies are needed to probe for non-gravitational interactions between dark matter and ordinary matter.  While most searches focus on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with masses between 1 GeV and 1 TeV, it is imperative to also consider other motivated dark matter candidates.  In this talk, I will discuss dark matter with MeV-to-GeV masses, which is a theoretically and phenomenologically appealing possibility and presents a new frontier in the search for dark matter.  I will highlight novel dark matter direct-detection strategies that can probe this under-explored mass range.  I will review how XENON10 data already probes dark matter with masses as low as a few MeV, and present recent constraints using XENON100 data.  I will then discuss improvements expected from near-future experiments, focusing on xenon, semiconductor, and scintillator targets.  This includes, for example, SENSEI, which is a new ultra-low-threshold silicon CCD detector that is poised to probe vast new regions of parameter space in the next few years.  I will also present a few simple benchmark models of MeV-to-GeV dark matter, and contrast direct-detection probes with searches at colliders and fixed-target experiments.