SMuK 2023 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik
T 14: Neutrinos, Dark Matter II
T 14.4: Vortrag
Montag, 20. März 2023, 17:15–17:30, HSZ/0002
Paleo-detectors for Dark Matter — •Alexey Elykov — Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Astroparticle Physics
Despite the recent advances in physics, Dark Matter (DM) still eludes detection by modern large-scale experiments and puzzles the minds of physicists. Paleo-detectors represent a drastically different approach to DM detection, which uses ancient samples of natural minerals to search for nm-sized damage tracks produced by DM-induced nuclear recoils, that will accumulate in the minerals for ∼ 1 Gyr, while they reside in the depths of the Earth. Modern, state-of-the-art microscopy techniques can be used to read out these minute tracks with nm resolution, differentiating them from those produced by more energetic radioactive contaminants. Despite their small size the Gyr-scale lifetime of paleo-detectors provides them with enormous exposure, allowing them to probe DM-nucleon cross sections below current limits for DM masses greater than 30 GeV/c2. For lighter DM particles, with masses < 10 GeV/c2, the sensitivity of paleo-detectors reaches many orders of magnitude below the current upper limits. In this talk, the latest research and developments towards the use of mineral-based paleo-detectors will be presented.