Searches for Light Dark Matter with Spherical Proportional Counters

  • Konstantinos Nikolopoulos School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT Birmingham, UK; Institute for Experimental Physics, University of Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
  • Patrick Knights School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT Birmingham, UK
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31526/JAIS.2025.548
Keywords: direct dark matter searches, neutrino properties, sensor development, simulation techniques, neutron spectroscopy

Abstract

Elucidating the nature of dark matter is a key priority that would involve discovering new fundamental
physics and is essential for understanding the structure and evolution of the universe. Despite the decadeslong ever-more-sensitive searches, the particle content of dark matter remains elusive. Direct searches for dark matter candidates, to date, focused mainly on candidates in the 10 GeV to 1 TeV; however, more recently lighter candidates with sub-GeV mass have been brought to the spotlight. This is an experimentally challenging mass region, which remains largely uncharted. The spherical proportional counter is a new type of gaseous detector which exhibits several features making it ideally suited for exploring this mass
range. In this article, the invention and development of the spherical proportional counter are presented, its
applications in the search for particle dark matter and beyond are reviewed, and possible future directions
are discussed.

Published
2025-02-16
How to Cite
[1]
K. Nikolopoulos and P. Knights, “Searches for Light Dark Matter with Spherical Proportional Counters”, Journal of Advanced Instrumentation in Science, vol. 2025, no. 1, Feb. 2025.
Issue
Volume 2025
Section
Experimental challenges in the direct search for dark matter

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