To spot such rare decay if it exists physicists need to work far underground, where background radiation is low, and to observe large amount of nuclei, such as xenon-136, germanium-76, or tellurium-130.
Results are presented on R&D efforts to design and build large size veto panels, optimized for underground low background experiments, in the most efficient and economical way using commercially available components.
At several sites in Europe and the US, detectors – stored deep underground to minimise background radiation – are straining to pinpoint the existence of dark matter Wimps.
Detector design and depth underground limited the background to 5±0.3% (far detectors) and 2±0.2% (near detectors) of the candidate signals.
In fact, he limited it to "cars buried underground in the background [and elements that do not] raise any eyebrows".
Using simulations to understand backgrounds from muon-induced neutrons is important in designing next-generation low-background underground experiments.
We then discuss the theoretical predictions for the searches of particle dark matter: direct detection in low-background underground experiments and indirect detection of neutrinos, gamma-rays and antimatter with terrestrial and space-borne detectors.
The present-state-of-the-art carefully designed low-level HPGe γ-spectrometers, which do not operate underground, have a dominating background component induced by cosmic rays, mostly by cosmic muons.
