Draft version March 8, 2019

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The Direct Detection of Dark Matter Particles Using Experimental Techniques

Janvi Madhani1
1 Universityof Pittsburgh
100 Allen Hall
3941 O’Hara St.
Pittsburgh, PA. 15213, USA.

Submitted to Dr. Tae Min Hong

ABSTRACT
Dark matter is the name given to the invisible component of the universe accounting for 85% of
all mass. It is hypothesized to be some form of a non-baryonic, possibly subatomic, particle existing
outside of the realm of what is summarized by the standard model. Currently, there are a few hy-
pothetical candidates; weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS), axions, or heavy hidden sector
particles that interact with matter only via the gravitational force. The search for such particles can be
broadly categorized into two categories: direct detection and indirect detection. Direct detection looks
for evidence of these particles through various scattering experiments and indirect detection looks for
the products of dark matter particle annihilations or decays. In order for direct detection to take place,
experiments have to set certain thresholds for cross-sections, mass, and energy for particle interactions.
These thresholds induce strict limitations for direct detection and thus far, no such particle within ex-
perimental constraints has been detected. This project will detail the search for theorized candidates
for a dark matter particle by the Large Underground Xenon experiment (LUX), the XENON dark
matter research project,the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS), and by the Project In Canada to
Search for Supersymmetric Objects (PICASSO).

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