Searching for dark matter all the way down to the neutrino floor

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Synopsis

Despite the enormous progress made over the past century in understanding the fundamental building blocks of nature, the identity of most of the matter in the universe remains a mystery. This unknown substance, called dark matter, is also thought to play a crucial role in guiding the evolution of the early universe to produce the astrophysical structures we observe today. In the first part of this talk I will review the evidence for dark matter, discuss potential candidates, and describe how it is being searched for in deep-underground laboratory experiments. These experiments are developing very rapidly, and will soon begin to observe solar and atmospheric neutrinos. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss the challenges these neutrinos present to finding dark matter and how they can be addressed.