Direct Dark Matter Searches

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current status and future prospects of direct dark matter searches, focusing on WIMPs, and discusses experimental limits, challenges, and potential advancements in detection technology.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent experimental limits on WIMP detection and discusses future directions and technological needs for confirming dark matter particles.

Findings

Current limits at or below 10-7 pb for neutralino coupling

Experiments are probing supersymmetric models

Future detectors may require tonne-scale mass and directional sensitivity

Abstract

For many working in particle physics and cosmology successful discovery and characterisation of the new particles that most likely explain the non-baryonic cold dark matter, known to comprise the majority of matter in the Universe, would be the most significant advance in physics for a century. Reviewed here is the current status of direct searches for such particles, in particular the so-called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), together with a brief overview of the possible future direction of the field extrapolated from recent advances. Current best limits are at or below 10-7 pb for spin-independent neutralino coupling, sufficient that experiments are already probing SUSY models. However, new detectors with tonne-scale mass and/or capability to correlate signal events to our motion through the Galaxy will likely be needed to determine finally whether WIMPs exist.