Résumé / Abstract Journal-club_GReCO

Séminaire / Seminar GReCO

« Deciphering the nature of WIMP Dark Matter »

D. Cerdeño
Univ. Autonoma (Madrid, Espagne)

In this talk I will describe the possibility of gaining information about the nature of WIMP dark matter through direct detection experiments which are simultaneusly sensitive to the WIMP scalar and axial couplings, as is the case of COUPP (Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics). I will first comment on the viability of some theoretically well motivated candidates for WIMPs: the lightest neutralino in supersymmetric extensions of the MSSM, and the lightest Kaluza-Klein particle which arises in models with extra dimensions. Then the conditions under which these WIMPs could be observed in projected dark matter experiments will be analysed. Finally, I will show that in the case of having a WIMP detection, the comparison of the signal in two complementary targets allows a better determination of the WIMP scalar and axial couplings, which might permit the discrimination between WIMPs (in this case neutralino and Kaluza-Klein dark matter).
lundi 21 janvier 2008 - 11:00
Salle des séminaires Évry Schatzman
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Pages web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage