Contact Information
Department of Physics525 Northwestern Avenue
West Lafayette, IN
47907-2036
Map and Directions
Telephone:
(765) 494-2970
Fax:
(765) 494-0706
Rafael Lang
Purdue University
"Closing in on Dark Matter"
Thursday January 10, 2013
4:00pm PHYS 203
Refreshments are served at 3:30 p.m. in Physics room 242
A large variety of astrophysical and cosmological data consistently points towards the realization that most matter in the Universe is Dark Matter. The question is: what is Dark Matter made of? Significant experimental efforts attempt to detect Dark Matter particles with a variety of methods: collider experiments try to find evidence for the production of Dark Matter particles; satellites in orbit search for the annihilation products of Dark Matter; experiments deep underground search for indications of Dark Matter scattering in specialized detectors. I will review the astrophysical evidence for Dark Matter and briefly describe the most popular Dark Matter models. I will then talk about the different detection technologies, their status, and prospects. Direct detection experiments in particular promise to cover the expected parameter space of the leading Dark Matter candidate particles, scaling-up existing technology.