The case for a directional dark matter detector and the status of current experimental efforts

TL;DR

This paper advocates for the development of directional dark matter detectors, reviews current experimental efforts, and assesses the feasibility of scaling up to a large, cost-intensive detector with directional sensitivity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive argument for directional detection, summarizes current experimental statuses, and presents a feasibility study for a large-scale detector.

Findings

Directional detectors are crucial for dark matter identification.

Current experimental efforts are at various development stages.

Scaling up to a ton-scale detector is feasible at an estimated cost of $150M.

Abstract

We present the case for a dark matter detector with directional sensitivity. This document was developed at the 2009 CYGNUS workshop on directional dark matter detection, and contains contributions from theorists and experimental groups in the field. We describe the need for a dark matter detector with directional sensitivity; each directional dark matter experiment presents their project's status; and we close with a feasibility study for scaling up to a one ton directional detector, which would cost around $150M.