New Frontiers In Dark Matter Direct Detection Searches

Synopsis

With multiple cosmological and astrophysical evidence supporting its existence, dark matter comprises up to 27% of the energy content of our universe. Expected to be made of non-relativistic particles, which do not interact with light, the true nature of dark matter remains one of the fundamental questions in modern physics today. Particle dark matter candidates are proposed in a wide mass range spanning almost 12 orders of magnitude, from keV-scale to PeV-scale dark matter. Over the last two decades, searches for dark matter above the proton mass have advanced significantly, however, recently sub-GeV dark mark model have grown in interest. This talk will review the state of the sub-GeV direct detection field, and recent progress made by the Scintillating Bubble Chamber (SBC) experiment that provides a novel technique to measure nuclear recoils with energy thresholds at the hundreds eV-scale. The SBC detector combines the excellent electron-recoil insensitivity inherent in bubble chambers with the ability to reconstruct energy based on the scintillation signal for further background suppression. The experiment is being commissioned at the Fermilab laboratory and will be deployed at SNOLAB for a low-background dark matter search. Lastly, the talk will review how chip development in superconducting quantum sensors could enable ultra-low mass dark matter searches, expanding down to the keV mass range.