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SEQUENCE:0
UID:UW-Physics-Event-1588
DTSTART:20100305T220000Z
DURATION:PT1H0M0S
DTSTAMP:20260421T005752Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20100223T155817Z
LOCATION:2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm)
SUMMARY:Uncovering the Nature of Dark Matter with Direct Detection Exp
 eriments. Status and Prospects from a XENON Perspective.\, Physics Dep
 artment Colloquium\, Uwe Oberlack\, Rice University
DESCRIPTION:More than 80% of the matter in the universe is in the form
  of non-baryonic Dark Matter. "Regular" matter makes up less than 5% o
 f the matter and energy content of the universe. Understanding the nat
 ure of Dark Matter ranks therefore among the outstanding questions in 
 physics today. The rapid formation of structure in the early universe 
 from small density variations as observed in the Cosmic Microwave Back
 ground supports the idea of Dark Matter being a thermal relic of Weakl
 y Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). WIMPs can be detected in prin
 ciple by their interactions with regular matter. The XENON Dark Matter
  program pursues the goal of directly detecting nuclear recoils result
 ing from scattering with Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs)\
 , using increasingly more sensitive experiments. The detector concept 
 consists of a dual-phase liquid/gas xenon time projection chamber with
  a low energy threshold. It discriminates against background using sim
 ultaneous measurements of the primary scintillation light and the char
 ge signal\, resulting from interactions in the noble liquid.  Followin
 g the successful XENON10\, the current experiment XENON100 features 10
  times greater sensitive mass and 100 times lower background. XENON100
  aims at improving sensitivity by a factor of 20 over current limits. 
 I will provide an overview of the field\, describe the status of XENON
 100\, and discuss its physics reach along with future prospects of det
 ectors at the ton scale.
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=1588
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