Speaker
Dr
Animesh Chatterjee
(University of Texas at Arlington)
Description
Various cosmological and astrophysical observations strongly support the existence of the Dark
Matter (DM) with an abundance of ≈ 27%. All the astrophysical evidences of dark matter are
through its gravitational interactions. A central question is whether DM particles experience
interactions with ordinary matter beyond gravity. Recent theoretical work has highlighted the
motivations for sub-GeV dark matter candidates that interact with ordinary matter through new
light mediator particles, called "vector portal" model. Such sub-GeV (or light) dark matter
particles are difficult to probe using traditional methods of dark matter detection, but can be
copiously produced in Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF). The DM particles can then be
detected through neutral-current like interactions either with electrons or nucleons in the
detector. Since the signature of DM events looks just like those of the neutrinos, the neutrino
beam provides the major source of background for the DM signal. Several ways have been
proposed to suppress neutrino backgrounds by using the unique characteristics of the DM beam.
In this talk, we will discuss the possibility of searching DM particles, produced in high intensity
proton beams at LBNF using the DUNE Near detector, which will be competitive to results from
other experiments.