Some theoretical and experimental aspects regarding the direct dark matter field are mentioned. In particular some arguments, which play a relevant role in the evaluation of model dependent interpretations of experimental results and in comparisons, are shortly addressed.
A variety of detectors has been proposed for dark matter direct detection, but most of them -- by the fact -- are still at R&D stage. In many cases, it is claimed that the lack of an adequate detectors radio-purity might be compensated through heavy uses of MonteCarlo simulations, subtractions and handlings of the measured counting rates, in order to claim higher sensitivity (just for a particular scenario). The relevance of a correct evaluation of systematic effects in the use of MonteCarlo simulations at very low energy (which has always been safely discouraged in the field so far) and of multiple subtractions and handling procedures applied to the measured counting rate is shortly addressed here at some extent. Many other aspects would also deserve suitably deep investigations.
A search for dark matter using an underground single-phase liquid xenon detector was conducted at the Kamioka Observatory in Japan, particularly for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). We have used 705.9 live days of data in a fiducial volume containing 97 kg of liquid xenon at the center of the detector. The event rate in the fiducial volume after the data reduction was ${rm (4.2 pm 0.2) times 10^{-3} , day^{-1}kg^{-1} keV_{ee}^{-1}}$ at ${rm 5 , keV_{ee}}$, with a signal efficiency of ${rm 20%}$. All the remaining events are consistent with our background evaluation, mostly of the mis-reconstructed events originated from $^{210}$Pb in the copper plates lining the detectors inner surface. The obtained upper limit on a spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section was ${rm 2.2 times 10^{-44} , cm^{2}}$ for a WIMP mass of ${rm 60 , GeV/c^{2}}$ at the $90%$ confidence level, which was the most stringent limit among results from single-phase liquid xenon detectors.
Directional detection of galactic Dark Matter is a promising search strategy for discriminating geniune WIMP events from background ones. We present technical progress on gaseous detectors as well as recent phenomenological studies, allowing the design and construction of competitive experiments.
We propose an X-ray mission called Xenia to search for decaying superweakly interacting Dark Matter particles (super-WIMP) with a mass in the keV range. The mission and its observation plan are capable of providing a major break through in our understanding of the nature of Dark Matter (DM). It will confirm, or reject, predictions of a number of particle physics models by increasing the sensitivity of the search for decaying DM by about two orders of magnitude through a wide-field imaging X-ray spectrometer in combination with a dedicated observation program. The proposed mission will provide unique limits on the mixing angle and mass of neutral leptons, right handed partners of neutrinos, which are important Dark Matter candidates. The existence of these particles is strongly motivated by observed neutrino flavor oscillations and the problem of baryon asymmetry of the Universe. In super-WIMP models, the details of the formation of the cosmic web are different from those of LambdaCDM. The proposed mission will, in addition to the search for decaying Dark Matter, provide crucial insight into the nature of DM by studying the structure of the cosmic web. This will be done by searching for missing baryons in emission, and by using gamma-ray bursts as backlight to observe the warm-hot intergalactic media in absorption.
Direct Dark Matter detection with cryodetectors is briefly discussed, with particular mention of the possibility of the identification of the recoil nucleus. Preliminary results from the CREEST II Dark Matter search, with 730 kg-days of data, are presented. Major backgrounds and methods of identifying and dealing with them are indicated.