Inclusion of GENIE as neutrino event generator for INO ICAL

The iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector is the proposed underground neutrino-physics experiment in the INO cavern. Its main goal is the determination of sign of 2–3 mass-squared difference, \({\Delta } m_{32}^{2}\) \(({=} {m^{2}_{3}} - {m^{2}_{2}})\) in the presence of matter effects, apart from the precise measurement of other neutrino parameters. Like all other neutrino experiments, the INO Collaboration is going to interface its main software code with a neutrino event generator. The GENIE software is best suited for the ICAL experiment. But, it requires a few modifications before being incorporated in ICAL simulation to have better representation of the neutrino flux and to be more user friendly to the INO user. This paper reports all these modifications.     

Gravitino dark matter from inflaton decay

We discuss a scenario that gravitinos produced non-thermally by an inflaton decay constitute dark matter in the present universe. We find that this scenario is realized for wide ranges of the inflaton mass and the vacuum expectation value. What is intriguing about this scenario is that the gravitino dark matter can have a relatively large free streaming length at matter-radiation equality, which can be probed by future observation on QSO-galaxy strong lens system.     

Experiments aiming at direct detection of dark matter

We present a review of existing and planned dark matter direct detection experiments. The emphasis is on principle limitations for this detection technique and resulting consequences for future projects. We argue that the near future experiments, CDMS and HDMS, will give such stringent limits on WIMP–nucleon elastic cross sections that the next round of experiments will have to be either massive direction–sensitive detectors or massive ton–scale detectors with almost zero background. Candidate experiments with these requirements are shortly introduced like the newly announced GENIUS proposal. We also shortly discuss the implications of WIMP search results for accelerator experiments and vice versa. Received: 16 April 1998     

Two-channel scheme for dark matter particle detection based on a low-temperature magnetic calorimeter

Problems of dark matter (DM) particle detection are briefly reviewed. An original two-channel scheme for direct detection of cosmic DM particles is proposed. This scheme is based on a superlow-temperature calorimeter which includes a nuclear spin system whose magnetic response is measured by a quantum interferometer (SQUID). Low threshold and the capability for efficiently suppressing the recoil-electron background are the most important advantages of the proposed scheme. They make it possible to detect DM particles in the range of extremely low recoil energies and carry out direct DM search with high sensitivity.     

Gamma-ray spectrum from gravitino dark matter decay

Gravitinos are very promising candidates for the cold dark matter of the Universe. Interestingly, to achieve a sufficiently long gravitino lifetime, R parity conservation is not required, thus preventing any dangerous cosmological influence of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. When R parity is violated, gravitinos decay into photons and other particles with a lifetime much longer than the age of the Universe, producing a diffuse gamma-ray flux with a characteristic spectrum that could be measured in future experiments, such as GLAST or AMS-02. In this Letter we compute the energy spectrum of photons from gravitino decay and discuss its main qualitative features.     

Collider search of light dark matter model with dark sector decay

We explore the possibility that the dark matter relic density is not produced by a thermal mechanism directly, but by the decay of other heavier dark-sector particles which themselves can be produced by the thermal freeze-out mechanism. Using a concrete model with light dark matter from dark sector decay, we study the collider signature of the dark sector particles associated with Higgs production processes. We find that future lepton colliders could be a better place to probe the signature of this kind of light dark matter model than hadron colliders such as LHC. Also, we find that a Higgs factory with center-of-mass energy 250 GeV has a better potential to resolve the signature of this kind of light dark matter model than a Higgs factory with center-of-mass energy 350 GeV.     

A review of indirect searches for particle dark matter

The indirect detection of dark matter annihilation and decay using observations of photons, charged cosmic rays and neutrinos offers a promising means of identifying the particle nature of this elusive component of the universe. The last decade has seen substantial advances in observational data-sets, complemented by new insights from numerical simulations, which together have enabled for the first time strong constraints on dark matter particle models, and have revealed several intriguing hints of possible signals. This review provides an introduction to indirect detection methods and an overview of recent results in the field.     

暗物质的直接实验探测

暗物质研究是21世纪粒子物理、天体物理和宇宙学最重要的前沿科学课题之一.暗物质被天文学中的引力效应所观察到,但对它的存在和认识仍旧是个谜.文章主要论述了对弱作用大质量暗物质粒子(WIMP)直接探测的基本原理、各种直接探测技术、当前的实验进展和发展方向.最后给出了最近的实验物理结果.     

Status of dark matter detection

The detection of dark matter has made great progresses in recent years. We give a brief review on the status and progress in dark matter detection, including the progresses in direct detection, collider detection at LHC and focus on the indirect detection. The results from PAMELA, ATIC, Fermi-LAT and relevant studies on these results are introduced. Then we give the progress on indirect detection of gamma rays from Fermi-LAT and ground based Cerenkov telescopes. Finally the detection of neutrinos and constraints on the nature of dark matter are reviewed briefly.     

暗物质的直接实验探测

暗物质研究是21世纪粒子物理、天体物理和宇宙学最重要的前沿科学课题之一.暗物质被天文学中的引力效应所观察到,但对它的存在和认识仍旧是个谜.文章主要论述了对弱作用大质量暗物质粒子（WIMP）直接探测的基本原理、各种直接探测技术、当前的实验进展和发展方向.最后给出了最近的实验物理结果.     

Direct detection searches for WIMP dark matter

A very active hunt is underway to discover the composition of dark matter in the universe. A large effort is devoted to the direct detection of dark matter through interactions with detectors in the laboratory. In this paper, we give an overview of the dark matter problem, discuss some of the design considerations taken in direct detection experiments, and describe some of the current efforts to discover Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), a well-motivated class of candidates for dark matter.     

Resonance detection of dark matter axions using a DC SQUID

A method for detecting dark matter axions in which a dc SQUID serves as a detector is proposed. The SQUID is shown to be able to detect the magnetic field perturbations induced by its interaction with axions. The resonance signal appears as a current step in the SQUID current–voltage characteristic. The voltage of the step corresponds to the axion mass, while its height depends on the axion energy density in near-Earth space. The proposed method is aimed at detecting axions with masses m_a ? 10^–4 eV, which are of interest for both cosmology and particle physics.     

Matter and dark matter from false vacuum decay

We study tachyonic preheating associated with the spontaneous breaking of B−L$B-L$, the difference of baryon and lepton number. Reheating occurs through the decays of heavy Majorana neutrinos which are produced during preheating and in decays of the Higgs particles of B−L$B-L$ breaking. Baryogenesis is an interplay of nonthermal and thermal leptogenesis, accompanied by thermally produced gravitino dark matter. The proposed mechanism simultaneously explains the generation of matter and dark matter, thereby relating the absolute neutrino mass scale to the gravitino mass.     

Direct detection of WIMP dark matter

The question of the nature of dark matter in the universe is perhaps the greatest problem facing cosmology and particle physics at present. New observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and distant supernovae show that more that 90% of the mass in the universe is in the form of some unknown matter. Many lines of evidence from cosmology and particle physics suggest that the best candidate for this dark matter is a weakly interacting massive particle, or WIMP. Such particles are predicted by supersymmetry, a theory extending the Standard Model of particle physics, and many experiments around the world are now trying to directly detect these WIMPs. This article reviews the reasons for believing WIMPs to be the dark matter, and considers the challenges involved in detecting their rare low-energy interactions with normal matter. Current experimental searches are reviewed with regard to the claimed detection of WIMPs by the DAMA group. These experiments are just beginning to reach the sensitivity needed to detect, or rule out, supersymmetric WIMPs, and higher sensitivity future experiments are also discussed.     

Neutrinoless double-beta decay and dark matter search with GENIUS

The potential of the GENIUS (GErmanium in liquid NItrogen Underground Setup) experiment, proposed as the successor of the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment, for the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay, the direct search for neutralino Cold Dark Matter, and for other physics beyond the Standard Model will be presented. The current status of the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment will be reviewed.