Theoretical predictions of wimp-nucleus and neutrino-nucleus scattering in context of dark matter direct detection

2018

The nature of dark matter is at present an open question. Assuming the main component of dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), directly detecting such particle via a scattering process with an atomic nucleus would be a strong probe into properties of dark matter. So far direct detection experiments have not provided a conclusive signal of dark matter. Traditionally the experiments aim to detect a coherent, spin- independent, elastic scattering signal which is enhanced by the square of the nuclear mass number. If the coherent channel is for some reason suppressed for WIMP-nucleus interactions, then spin-dependent interactions become important. In this thesis w…