CYGNUS 2013: 4th Workshop on Directional Detection of Dark Matter

Abstract

It is a great pleasure to publish the proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Directional Detection of Dark Matter held in Toyama, Japan on 10–12 June 2013 (CYGNUS 2013). These proceedings contain written versions of the presentations made at CYGNUS 2013 as scientific outputs of the directional detection of dark matter. The GYGNUS workshop started in 2007 at Boulby Underground Laboratory (UK), followed by CYGNUS 2009 (MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) and CYGNUS 2011 (AUSSOIS, France). CYGNUS 2013 was held by the combination of a two and a half days of scientific program and a half day visit to the underground laboratory (Kamioka Observatory) as a ‘tradition’ of CYGNUS workshops. The name ‘CYGNUS’ came from the fact that the ‘dark matter wind’ is expected to come from the direction of the constellation Cygnus due to the motion of the Solar system in the galaxy. A general aim of these CYGNUS workshops is to bring together the theoretical and experimental studies on the directional dark matter detection. Directional detection of dark matter is a promising approach to a ‘clear detection’ and also to ‘further investigations’ of galactic dark matter, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). Directional detection requires the simultaneous detection of the energy and track of low energy recoils. Among many technological challenges for the requirement above, three of them, namely size, background, and directionality (angular resolution and head-tail detection), are most important to demonstrate and improve the quality as a dark matter detector. In the workshop, up-to-date activities by the international reserchers are discussed. The workshop was a great success thanks to the oral contributions and fruitful discussions held throughout the workshop period. We hope that readers will remember and share the great enthusiasm shown during the CYGNUS 2013 workshop. The Editors Tatsuhiro Naka and Kentaro Miuchi