WIMP dark matter detection is increasingly constrained by the "neutrino fog," where solar neutrino backgrounds mask potential signals. To address this challenge, we are developing a diamond-based detector that leverages nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers for directional event discrimination. WIMP or solar neutrino interactions induce nuclear recoils that create permanent 10–100 nm damage tracks in...
We present results on nuclear recoil detection based on the fluorescence of color centers which are created by recoil cascades in lithium fluoride. We use gamma rays, fast and thermal neutrons, and show that this type of detector is rather insensitive to gamma rays. Furthermore, we establish that the shape of the fluorescent spectrum is different for neutron and gamma irradiation,...
At the lowest threshold for particle detection using the PALEOCCENE technique, nuclear recoils may result in only small numbers of single vacancy or interstitial defects. When such defects are optically active color centers, they can be used to image damage tracks down to atomic-scale resolution. First principles calculations are an effective approach for screening large numbers of minerals...
In supersymmetric extensions of the standard model, bosonic partner of quarks (squarks) tend to form an extended objects in the presence of large baryon number, called Q-ball.
Q-balls surviving evaporation and diffusion in the Early Universe contribute to (part of) observed dark matter abundance.
Since Q-ball dark matter has macroscopic mass like gram or heavier (flux limited), it is...
We introduce a novel experimental method that enables sensitivity to a single anomalously heavy particle within a large volume of macroscopic matter. We propose to apply this method to colliders, ancient rocks, and other materials to search for heavy, long-lived BSM particles such as gluinos, charged dark matter, and magnetic monopoles.
In 1995, Snowden-Ifft and colleagues used 500-million-year-old muscovite mica to establish one of the most stringent dark matter cross-section limits, achieving an exposure of 0.08 square millimeters. They etched cleaved mica surfaces to read out nuclear recoil tracks, visible as pits, with atomic force microscopy (AFM), then estimated the recoil energies from pit depths. We are now planning...
The use of ancient minerals as paleo-detectors is an emerging experimental technique capable of transforming the fields of neutrino and dark matter detection. We present the concept of using paleo-detectors to indirectly detect atmospheric neutrinos and dark matter particles (weakly interacting massive particles and beyond) by observing nuclear recoil damage tracks induced by interactions with...
Paleo-detectors offer a unique opportunity to probe the long-term history of cosmic ray flux, potentially revealing evidence of historical nearby high-energy astrophysical events. In this contribution, we present our recently published work demonstrating that evaporites formed during the Messinian Salinity Crisis (~6 Myr ago) could provide an ideal natural target to study secondary cosmic ray...
Well-characterized neutron irradiation is an indispensable tool in the quest to understand characteristic defects produced in minerals by coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering and hypothetical dark matter particles. This talk will introduce and discuss opportunities for high-fidelity, quantifiable, and repeatable neutron irradiations at a wide range of energy scales. Practical sources...
Natural minerals have recently gained attention as potential detectors for neutrinos, dark matter, and other unknown particles. However, radioactive elements such as uranium can generate neutrons, alpha recoil, and fission tracks, contributing to background noise. To minimize such interference, minerals with extremely low uranium concentrations are considered ideal candidates. This study aims...
Alpha recoil track (ART) is a lattice defect formed by the alpha decay of heavy nuclides. It is necessary to investigate appropriate etching conditions, surface properties of a mineral, and the ART annealing characteristics upon heating to apply ART observation to the dating and thermal history study of various minerals. This study aims to develop a method for artificially forming ART so that...
Detection of Dark Matter (DM) is one of the major goals in modern physics. The properties of neutrinos also largely remain a mystery. Mineral-detectors aim to utilize the advent of modern microscopy and computational techniques to read out nm and $\mu$m-sized damage features produced by nuclear recoils of DM and neutrinos with nuclei of natural minerals. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)...
This research focuses on the study of tracks in quartz, an abundant mineral in the earth. Both synthesized single crystal quartz and natural quartz samples from deep underground have been studied. We introduced heavy gold ions into the synthesized quartz samples at different irradiation fluences. The samples were then studied using advanced transmission electron microscopy. We have found...
In this talk I will review high mass dark matter models that motivate searches for dark matter in minerals. After detailing modern developments in high mass dark matter searches, I will review past searches in mic, and make some comments on technical challenges and opportunities moving forward.
We review current constraints on very heavy dark matter. While most of the constraints on heavy dark matter rely on indirect searches with neutrinos, gamma rays and cosmic rays, direct searches enable us to probe certain parameter space that has not been explored. Some science cases of DMica will be discussed.
Currently, various dark matter searches are being conducted worldwide, yet its properties remain unknown, and a vast parameter space is still unexplored. Ultra-heavy dark matter with a mass of 10^10 GeV/ or more is expected to exist, potentially as composite dark matter. Several theoretical candidates have been proposed in particle physics, some of which offer intriguing solutions to...
Terrestrial mineral detector searches for signatures of new physics can be challenging due to the large backgrounds oringiating from cosmic ray interactions with the Earth's atmosphere. However, the Moon offers a reprieve from these backgrounds, since the conventional components of the cosmic-ray-induced fluxes of muons and neutrinos are significantly suppressed due to the Moon's lack of...
- “Chikyu” was the one of the leading scientific drilling vessels in International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), and continues to be the same in the next International Ocean Drilling Programme3 (IODP3 = IODP-cubed). This presentation introduces Chikyu’s specifications, capabilities, wireline coring techniques, Small-Diameter Rotary Core Barrel (SD-RCB) system which was developed by JAMSTEC...
Olivines from komatiites represent some of the best available mineral detectors for neutrino and dark matter searches. Komatiites are Mg-rich lavas that are almost exclusive to the Archean (>2.5 billion years old) time period of Earth’s history. The high MgO contents of these lavas (typically 25 wt% MgO (Arndt, 2023), cf., 10 wt% MgO for modern basalts) reveal that their eruption temperatures...
