Thursday, November 10, 2022, 16:00
online
(for the zoom link contact michael.spira@psi.ch, marco.rocco@psi.ch
or max.zoller@psi.ch)
Ruth Pöttgen, Lund University
Abstract:
A compelling explanation for the origin and abundance of the dark matter
in the Universe, is that it is a thermal relic from the early
Universe, produced via freeze-out from a thermal equilibrium. On the one
hand, this restricts the viable mass range of dark matter particle
candidates to the region of roughly MeV to TeV. On the other hand, it
implies a non-gravitational interaction between dark and ordinary
matter, leading to a production mechanism at accelerators.
Accelerator-based experiments are thus among the prime tools to search
for light dark matter, where light here refers to masses from MeV to
GeV, i.e. in the lower part of the range motivated by thermal
freeze-out. This talk will review possible signatures to look for, and
will give an overview of past, present, and future experiments to search
for such sub-GeV dark matter at accelerators.