Universe Colloquium: Direct Dark Matter Search with the CRESST Experiment - Status and Future

by Raimund Strauss (TUM)

Wednesday 29 May 2013, 16:30 → 17:30 Europe/Berlin

Seminar room, basement (Universe)

Latest results from the Planck mission suggest 26.8% of the Universe to be made up of Dark Matter (DM). The most promising candidates for DM are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) which could be detected directly in earthbound experiments. After an introduction on the detection technique, this talk will review the most important direct DM search experiments. The main part of this seminar will then focus on the CRESST (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) experiment which uses CaWO4 crystals operated at mK temperatures as target for WIMPs. After a brief description of the experimental approach and setup, the results of the latest data taking campaign (2011) of CRESST where an excess signal of high significance was observed will be discussed. One interpretation of the results are low-mass WIMPs (10-30 GeV) which would be in tension with other DM search experiments and point towards new physics beyond the Standard Model. The preparations for the upcoming DM run of CRESST are finished and the modifications concerning detector design should significantly reduce the background level. The talk will conclude on how these efforts will eventually help to clarify the results of the 2011 run within this year. The Universe Colloquium is followed by a social gathering with wine and cheese.