Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks - WIMP Detection

WIMP Detection

There are numerous experiments worldwide attempting to detect the energy deposition that is expected to occur when a WIMP directly collides with an atom of ordinary matter. Ultra sensitive experiments are required to detect the low energy and extremely rare interaction that is predicted to occur between a WIMP and the nucleus of an atom in a target material. The DRIFT detectors vary from the majority of WIMP detectors in their use of a low pressure gas as a target material. The low pressure gas means that an interaction within the detector causes an ionisation track of measurable length compared to the point like interactions seen in detectors with solid or liquid target materials. Such ionisation tracks can be reconstructed in three dimensions to determine not only the type of particle that caused it, but from which direction the particle came. This directional sensitivity has the potential to prove the existence of WIMPs by their distinct directional signature.