Professor Jocelyn Monroe

Abstract:

Cosmological observations indicate that most of the matter in the Universe is Dark Matter. Dark Matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) can be detected directly, via its elastic scattering off target nuclei. Most current direct detection experiments only measure the energy of the recoiling nuclei. However, directional detection experiments are sensitive to the direction of the nuclear recoil as well. Due to the Sun's motion with respect to the Galactic rest frame, the directional recoil rate has a dipole feature, peaking around the direction of the Solar motion. This provides a powerful tool for demonstrating the Galactic origin of nuclear recoils and hence unambiguously detecting Dark Matter. Furthermore, the directional recoil distribution depends on the WIMP mass, scattering cross section and local velocity distribution. Therefore, with a large number of recoil events it will be possible to study the physics of Dark Matter in terms of particle and astrophysical properties. We review the potential of directional detectors for detecting and characterizing WIMPs.

Abstract:

The Dark Matter Time Projection Chamber (DMTPC) collaboration is developing prototype detectors to measure both the energies and directions of nuclear recoils. The intended application is to exploit the expected directional anisotropy of dark matter velocities at Earth to unambiguously observe dark matter induced recoils. The detector consist of low-pressure CF4 TPC's with CCD cameras, PMT's, and charge amplifiers for readout. This talk gives an overview of the experiment and describes recent advances in hardware and analysis.