Directional detection of Dark Matter

Among the many experimental techniques available, those providing directional information have the potential of yielding an unambiguous observation of WIMPs even in the presence of insidious backgrounds. A measurement of the distribution of arrival direction of WIMPs can also discriminate between Galactic Dark Matter halo models. In this article, I will discuss the motivation for directional detectors and review the experimental techniques used by the various experiments. I will then describe one of them, the DMTPC detector, in more detail.Comment: 17 pages, 11 postscript figures, mini-review submitted to Modern Physics Letters A (MPLA). Submitted to Modern Physics Letters A (MPLA

Gaseous Dark Matter Detectors

Dark Matter detectors with directional sensitivity have the potential of yielding an unambiguous positive observation of WIMPs as well as discriminating between galactic Dark Matter halo models. In this article, we introduce the motivation for directional detectors, discuss the experimental techniques that make directional detection possible, and review the status of the experimental effort in this field.Comment: 19 pages, review on gaseous directional dark matter detectors submitted to New Journal of Physic

One-dimensional fermionic systems after interaction quenches and their description by bosonic field theories

We show that the dynamics of quenches in one dimension far off equilibrium can be described by power laws, but with exponents differing from the fully renormalized ones at lowest energies. Instead they depend on the initial state and its excitation energy. Furthermore, we found that for quenches to strong interactions unexpected similarities between systems in one and in infinite dimensions occur, indicating the dominance of local processes.Comment: This is a distinctly revised version which is focussed on the description of the dynamics by bosonization technique

On quantum mean-field models and their quantum annealing

This paper deals with fully-connected mean-field models of quantum spins with p-body ferromagnetic interactions and a transverse field. For p=2 this corresponds to the quantum Curie-Weiss model (a special case of the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model) which exhibits a second-order phase transition, while for p>2 the transition is first order. We provide a refined analytical description both of the static and of the dynamic properties of these models. In particular we obtain analytically the exponential rate of decay of the gap at the first-order transition. We also study the slow annealing from the pure transverse field to the pure ferromagnet (and vice versa) and discuss the effect of the first-order transition and of the spinodal limit of metastability on the residual excitation energy, both for finite and exponentially divergent annealing times. In the quantum computation perspective this quantity would assess the efficiency of the quantum adiabatic procedure as an approximation algorithm.Comment: 44 pages, 23 figure

Charge amplification concepts for direction-sensitive dark matter detectors

Direction measurement of weakly interacting massive particles in time-projection chambers can provide definite evidence of their existence and help to determine their properties. This article demonstrates several concepts for charge amplification in time-projection chambers that can be used in direction-sensitive dark matter search experiments. We demonstrate reconstruction of the 'head-tail' effect for nuclear recoils above 100keV, and discuss the detector performance in the context of dark matter detection and scaling to large detector volumes.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Beyond CP violation: hadronic physics at BaBar

I report on recent studies of hadronic physics performed by the BaBar Collaboration. Emphasis is given to the measurement of the properties of newly discovered charmed hadrons and to the searches for light and heavy pentaquarks.Comment: 14 pages, 20 postscript figues, contributed to the Proceedings of the First APS Topical Group Meeting on Hadron Physics, Fermilab, Batavia, IL (October 24-26, 2004