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RE: Upgrading nuclear and medical waste to dark matter detectors
Is it possible we have already had a direct detection dark matter at a certain sigma?
Is it possible we have already had a direct detection dark matter at a certain sigma?
Unfortunately, not really (there is a catch; see below). All experiments exhibit null results so far, and the constraints on dark matter are hence stronger and stronger. However, one must keep in mind that these experiments target only a fraction of all available possibilities for dark matter. Only heavyish dark matter is probed, provided it is capable to recoil against the atomic nuclei making the detector. Which means that if dark matter is either too light or not interacting strongly enough, all sensitivity is lost. This is why new experiments are regularly designed and proposed, with the aim of opening up the parameter space in terms of probed regions.
Concerning positive results, there is however something: the DAMA/LIBRA signal, that has not been reproduced by any other experiment (so far). Results including 6 years of additional data have been released last year and the signal is still there (and is even stronger). This is stil a puzzle today and several experiments are trying to reproduce the DAMA/LIBRA results (you can for instance check this article). We however have to wait, probably for several years.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if supersymmetry is somehow required to prove dark matter while simultaneously, dark matter is required to prove supersymmetry?
Like a physics deadlock. It would be exciting.
Many supersymmetric scenarios feature a dark matter candidate, but this is not a requirement. You have supersymmetric models without dark matter (called RPV supersymmetric models). Therefore, discovering supersymmetry does not mean discovering dark matter. Conversely, proving dark matter wrong will not kill supersymmetry, but only some incarnations of it.
On the dark matter side, supersymmetry is only one option amongst many, even if it is amongst the most popular ones.
To make it short: discovering supersymmetry and dark matter have implications on each other. But we cannot say more as dark matter may be supersymmetric or not and supersymmetry may feature dark matter or not.