Exploring the WIMP Parameter Space Above and Below the Neutrino Floor

该奖项资助了印第安纳大学路易斯·斯特里格里教授对暗物质的研究活动。暗物质约占宇宙总物质的80%。然而，它还没有被直接探测到，它的身份仍然是一个谜。暗物质的主要候选者是一种新的自然基本粒子，而识别这种粒子是现代科学的首要目标之一。该项目的研究为未来十年寻找暗物质粒子的实验提供了至关重要的输入。随着对暗物质粒子的各种实验搜索规模的增加和灵敏度的提高，在试图提取可能的信号方面将出现新的挑战。对于直接的暗物质搜索，未来一个重要的背景将是“中微子层”；这被定义为探测器大到足以探测到太阳、大气和超新星产生的中微子的尺度。探测器现在正迅速接近这些中微子出现的尺度，因此必须共同努力了解它们的光谱，以便正确地识别它们。该奖项的资金将用于研究理论和实验方法，以减少暗物质探测器中中微子背景的不确定性。这项工作将涉及理论预测、统计数据建模以及对许多现代暗物质和中微子实验的分析。

This award funds the research activities on dark matter of Professor Louis Strigari at Indiana University. Dark matter comprises about 80% of the total matter in the Universe. However, it has not yet been directly detected and its identify remains a mystery. A leading candidate for dark matter would be a new elementary particle of nature, and identifying this particle is one of the foremost goals of modern science. The research within this project provides a crucial input to experiments that are searching for dark matter particles over the course of the next decade. As the various experimental searches for particle dark matter increase in size and improve in sensitivity, new challenges will arise in attempts to extract a possible signal. For direct dark matter searches, an important background in the future will be the "neutrino floor"; this is defined as the scale at which detectors are large enough to detect neutrinos produced from the Sun, atmosphere, and supernovae. Detectors are now fast approaching the scale at which these neutrinos will appear, so it is imperative to make a concerted effort towards understanding their spectra so that they may be properly identified. The funding under this award will be utilized to study theoretical and experimental methods to reduce the uncertainty on the neutrino backgrounds in dark matter detectors. The work will involve theoretical predictions, statistical data modeling, and analysis of many modern dark matter and neutrino experiments.