Ben Lilard: "New Strategies for sub-GeV Dark Matter Discovery"

Wednesday 2 Sept 2026, 13:00 → 15:00 Europe/London

Anisotropic direct detection experiments can discover dark matter even in the presence of irreducible Standard Model backgrounds, by using daily modulation to isolate the dark matter signal. Our new ab initio molecular physics package, SCarFFF, makes it possible to sift through millions of molecules to find the ones best suited for dark matter detection. In this talk, I show how an ensemble of different materials could provide the foundation for an unambiguous discovery of dark matter, and I explain why the ideal detector should include both parity-breaking and parity-symmetric materials. Finally, I will share some recent updates from the first prototype experiment of this type, currently being assembled in Fermilab.