Dark matter detectors and the use of interaction location information for background suppression

Abstract

Detector requirements, particularly the need for background rejection, in the search for weakly Interacting Massive Particles, one of the possible solutions to the cold dark matter problem, are broadly reviewed. The use of liquid Xenon as a target material is discussed in detail for the ZEPLIN I detector, a single phase scintillation detector operated by the UK Dark Matter Collaboration. The use of position sensitive information to remove photomultiplier based events, reduce backgrounds and help identify potential signal events is outlined.