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Joint HEP/Theory Seminar: Leptophilic dark matter searches with XENON100 detector

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Monday, May 09, 2016
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Mayra D Cervantes, Purdue University

Dark Matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) is typically expected to induce nuclear recoils in a terrestrial detector target with an annually modulated rate due to the motion of the Earth around the Sun. Although such a modulation has been observed by the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration it is difficult to interpret it as a dark matter signal, given the null results from other experiments. Experimental anomalies like the annual modulation signal observed in the DAMA/LIBRA project cannot be explained by traditional dark matter scattering on atomic nuclei, but could be accommodated if dark matter scatters predominantly off electrons or if most of the energy is release in the form of photons.
We will present the results of the XENON experiment on leptophilic dark matter searches and we will contrast them with the DAMA signal.

Contact: Kate Scholberg