Direct and indirect detection of WIMPs

A generic weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) is one of the most attractive candidates to account for the cold dark matter in our Universe, since it would be thermally produced with the correct abundance to account for the observed dark matter density. WIMPs can be searched for directly through their elastic scattering with a target material, and a variety of experiments are currently operating or planned with this aim. In these notes we overview the theoretical calcul...

An overview of the current status of WIMP direct searches is presented, emphasizing strategies, achievements and prospects.

Direct searches for Dark Matter are experiment dedicated to the observation of the energetic recoiling ions produced by the scattering of WIMP particles from our galactic halo on terrestrial targets. The status and prospects of some currently running experiments are presented, together with new preliminary results of the experiments EDELWEISS-II.

The dark matter of our galactic halo may be constituted by elementary particles that interact weakly with ordinary matter (WIMPs). In spite of the very low counting rates expected for these dark matter particles to scatter off nuclei in a laboratory detector, such direct WIMP searches are possible and are experimentally carried out at present. An introduction to the theoretical ingredients entering the counting rates predictions, together with a short discussion of the major ...

After a brief introduction to dark matter in general and to WIMPs as candidates, we review recent results of direct dark matter searches. We concentrate on older and more recent hints pointing to light WIMP's with mass below 10 GeV.

Light WIMPs are dark matter particle candidates with weak scale interaction with the known particles, and mass in the GeV to 10's of GeV range. Hints of light WIMPs have appeared in several dark matter searches in the last decade. The unprecedented possible coincidence into tantalizingly close regions of mass and cross section of four separate direct detection experimental hints and a potential indirect detection signal in gamma rays from the galactic center, aroused consider...

An ever-increasing body of evidence suggests that weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) constitute the bulk of the matter in the Universe. Experimental data, dimensional analysis and Standard Model particle physics are sufficient to evaluate and compare the performance of detectors searching for such particles either directly (e.g.\ by their scattering in germanium detectors), or indirectly (e.g.\ by observing their annihilation into neutrinos in underground detectors)...

WIMPs and axions are the two best motivated candidates to compose the Dark Matter of the Universe. An important number of experimental groups are developing and using different techniques for their direct detection. An updated review of current searches is done, emphasizing latest results

The complementarity of direct, indirect and collider searches for dark matter has improved our understanding concerning the properties of the dark matter particle. In this short review, we present a step toward the fundamental nature of dark matter with direct detection experiments only, go through some of the potential dark matter signals in gamma-rays, x-rays, and anti-matter, and lastly discuss the prospects of WIMPs in the next decade.

The search for dark matter is a very wide an active field of research, and I necessarily concentrate here only in some aspects of it. I will review the prospects for direct and indirect dark matter searches of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles in the dark halo of our galaxy and focus in particular on the data of GLAST, PAMELA and DAMA.