Recent Developments in Dark Matter Detection

Ayan Mitra M.Sc. Cosmology

Since 1930s there has been enormous speculations in the physics society on the presence of dark matter and various projects have been undertaken one after other with the aim to get some experimental verification and proof on the presence of dark matter. We aim to present here a brief outline of the developments and the results of the projects undergone and still going on with the aim of finding some dark matter evidence.

Dark matter(DM) can be classified into two broad categories: 1. Baryonic 2. Non Baryonic. The later can be subdivided into:1.Hot DM(HDM) 2.Cold DM(CDM), of which the search for CDM is most ongoing in the process of trying to detect the Weakly Interacting massive Particles(WIMPs). There are direct ways and indirect ways of detection which are used on ground based or satellite based set ups. The recent developments in detecting WIMPs are as follows: I)Satellite based: a) PAMELA-launched in 2006-Payload for Antimatter Exploration & Light nuclei Astrophysics. 1) Expected to detect evidence for DM annihilation. 2) Preliminary data indicate an excess of positrons in the energy range of 10~60 GeV: thought to be a sign of DM annihilation. 3) Results however not fully convincing,as there are possibilities that mission was confusing positrons with far large numbers of protons reaching its detectors. b) Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope-Launched in 2008 1) One of the primary missions being,probe DM by looking for an excess of gamma rays from the center of the Milky Way. [1]

2) The team working with Fermis main instrument Large Area Telescope(LAT) found positrons with energies upto 200 GeV implying highly massive DM particles. Outlooks: the results very much rule out the DM interpretation of the high energetic positrons.No way to distinguish between sources of positrons whether from DM or pulsars.If positrons of even higher energies continue to pop in then the pulsar explanation will also become strained. II) Ground Based : a) LHC: indirect method of measurement. 1) The Compact Muon Solenoid ( CMS) results in relation to SUSY show that on collisions of proton-proton pair rarely sparticles may be produced, the lightest of which is a dark matter candidate as it is stable. 2) Till January 2011, some 3 trillion p-p collisions were examined and 13 SUSY like ones were found of them. Although no evidence of sparticles were found this measurement narrows down the area for DM research significantly. b) PICASSO- Project in Canada to Search for Susy Objects- a direct detection experiment.

1) Looking for most favorable candidate for cold DM namely,neutralino(WIMPs) 2) As of July 2009 no DM signal has been found. c) DAMA/LIBRA & DAMA NaI( Italy) 1) Direct detection using scintillations 2) DM particle investigation in galactic halo by exploiting DM annual modulation signature. 3) Flash rates of scintillations highest in June and lowest in December,implying detection evidence of DM. 4) Results of this group though is not widely accepted in the community. d) CDMS-The Cryogenic DM Search( Minnesota) . 1) Direct measurement of DM (WIMP Scatter) 2) Data set of 2003 has not yielded in any evidence of WIMPS 3) From 2008-09 data set processed using blinding method show 2 events with characteristics consistent for those of WIMPS. 4) However it can be that both events are due to background particles. e) DRIFT-Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks. 1) Attempt to utilize WIMP wind by using directionality sensitive DM detector. 2) No significant results as of now. f) Super Kamiokande ( Japan)1) Detection of high energy neutrino signals resulting from WIMP annihilation in earth, the sun, galactic centers. 2) Work mainly on Hot DM. Baryonic DM: III) MACHO: Massive Astrophysical Condensed Halo Objects. a) EROS 1) EROS I (1990-95)- No halo microlensing event found. 2) EROS 2(1996-03) From microlensing analysis of small magellanic cloud [2]

,stringent limits are put on the amount of galactic DM made of compact objects.Mass between 2 x 10(exp -7) solar mass and 1 solar mass cant account for more than 25% of the mass of standard,spherical,isothermal,isotropic, galactic halo of 4 x 10(exp 11) solar mass with 50 KPc radius volume. b) The MACHO project(1992-99) ( USA & Australia) 1) Results inferred that less than 1% halo mass is red dwarf. 2) This missing mass problem is not solved by MACHO. Conclusion: While some of the projects are still running yet not many of them has given anything concrete as yet,but specially the results of LHC are being eagerly awaited for by the physics community for any breakthroughs in DM frontier.
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References: 1) Retrieved from www.wikipedia.org 2) Retrieved from http://www.universetoday.com/82864/hunt-for-dark-matter-closes-in-at-the-lhc/ 3) Retrieved from http://www.oglethorpe.edu/faculty/~m_rulison/Astronomy/Group/Spring %2099/dark_matter.htm 4) Retrieved from https://news.slac.stanford.edu/features/fermi-gamma-ray-space-telescope-confirmspuzzling-preponderance-positrons 5) Retrieved from http://eros.in2p3.fr/publications.html 6)Bergstrom, L. (2010, february 09). http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.0595.

6)Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/: http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.0595 7)Debtosh Chowdhury, C. J. (2009, september 07). Results from PAMELA, ATIC and FERMI : Pulsars or Dark Matter ? 8)Fermi LAT Collaboration: M. Ackermann, M. A. (2011, september 09). http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.0521. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.0521 9)Marco Farina, M. K. (18 Apr 2011). Implications of XENON100 and LHC results for Dark Matter models.