Introduction

What is Dark Matter?

Dark Matter is an unknown component of the universe, identified via gravitation on a cosmological scale. Comprising a quarter of the critical energy density of the universe, its only observed interaction mechanism is gravitation, appearing to not interact with electromagnetic radiation.

Direct detection experiments search for the signature left when a dark matter particle interacts with the nucleus of a target detector. Often hosted in underground laboratories to shield the experiments from cosmic rays and environmental contaminants, there are a range of experiments globally that are comprised of detector materials ranging from nobel gasses like Argon and Xenon, to Germanium and Sodium-Iodide in a crystal form. To date, only the DAMA collaboration has claimed evidence of an annual modulation signal due to dark matter. Other experiments, like Australia’s SABRE collaboration, are working to test these results.