Speaker
Andrew Buchanan
(Queen's University)
Description
Speaker: Andrew Buchanan
Abstract: Many realistic models for dark matter predict the formation of extremely heavy composite particles in the early universe, with masses well in excess of 10^20 GeV. Today, the fluxes of these particles would be too low to be detectable in direct detection experiments on human timescales. This motivates searches for dark matter signatures in minerals with several billion years. I discuss prior searches and future prospects for detecting dark matter in muscovite mica, as well as the effects of precise modelling of the local dark matter velocity distribution on these searches.