Abstract:

Evidence for the existence of dark matter is now compelling, but its nature remains a fundamental mystery. Particularly intriguing is the possibility that dark matter is made of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). WIMPs may be detectable by their collisions with nuclei on Earth, but the low expected rate of such collisions and low energy of the recoil nuclei requires massive detectors with extremely low background rates, located in a deep underground laboratory. The development of a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) will enable the deployment of WIMP detectors several orders of magnitude more sensitive than those operating today. I will discuss plans to search for WIMPs with twin xenon and depleted argon detectors at DUSEL.