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Description
Dark matter is one of the most compelling mysteries in physics today. Astronomical evidence suggests that there is about five times more cold dark matter than baryonic matter in the universe. A favored scenario is that cold dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The race is now on to directly detect WIMPs by measuring their collisions with target nuclei in the laboratory. We will discuss the motivation for building directional dark matter detectors, and discuss different experimental approaches, with a focus on work that is happening right here at UH. We will present recent performance measurements of a tiny detector prototype, based on gas-filled Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) where the drift charge is amplified with Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) and detected with pixel electronics. We will discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and other applications of this technology. Finally, we will discuss plans to build a multi-m^3 directional dark matter detector. Such a detector may be able to determine whether the potential signals for low-mass dark matter seen by several recent experiments are in fact due to WIMPs, or just background.
