Dark matter direct detection in the context of effective theory

by Prof. Wick Haxton (UC Berkeley)

Thursday Mar 30, 2017, 3:00 AM → 4:00 AM Pacific/Honolulu

417A (WAT)

Conventionally direct detection dark matter experiments have been compared according to their sensitivity to charge (“spin independent”) or spin (“spin dependent”) scattering. I will describe a more systematic way of treating direct detection that use nucleon-level and then nuclear-level effective theory. One learns that there is much more to be learned about dark matter from such experiments than is generally believed. The effective theory analysis supports an approach to dark matter in which a larger number of experiments is done, with targets chosen to have the right nuclear “personalities."