Discovering Dark Matter Particles in the Laboratory

Research Project, 2014 – 2019

The aim of this research project is one of the most important challenges of modern fundamental physics: to detect particle dark matter from the cosmos and understand its nature. The next decade of astrophysical particle dark matter detection is pivotal. Telescopes and deep underground detectors will reach sensitivities that probe deeply into the parameter space of the most popular candidate of dark matter, called weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), a candidate that has the right properties for a dark matter particle generically and in addition is predicted to exist in one of the most prominent theories beyond the standard model (Supersymmetry). This recent improvement in sensitivities implies that – if the paradigm is correct – a discovery is clearly in the cards. The Stockholm University group has been internationally leading in the field of dark matter detection with gamma-ray telescopes. (so called indirect detection). Another detection technique, called direct detection, is searching for scattering of WIMPs in detectors placed in deep underground laboratories. This technique probes large fractions of parameter space that is unreachable by indirect detection. The aim of this proposal is to enable us to participate and play a major role in the most sensitive direct detection experiments world-wide. The combined approach of direct and indirect detection will maximize the probability to detect WIMP dark matter and the information about its nature that can be obtained. Swedish scientists will be in the front-line of this potential detection, and its theoretical interpretation. The significance for our understanding of the Universe can not be overestimated