Halo-independent methods in direct dark matter searches

Sebastian Wild, DESY Hamburg

One of the most promising strategies to probe WIMP dark matter is direct detection, i.e. the search for nuclear recoils produced by the elastic scattering of dark matter particles. After giving a general introduction to the theoretical framework and experimental status of direct detection, I will present recent developments which allow to interpret the experimental data without the need to specify the (unknown) velocity distribution of dark matter, called "halo-independent methods". Specifically, I will discuss to what extent future experiments can pinpoint the particle physics properties of dark matter in a halo-independent way. I will also present a novel approach to derive upper limits on the scattering cross section of dark matter using already existing experiments, again without the need to specify the velocity distribution.

(The slides will be available here)