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Dark matter (DM) is a non-luminous component of the Universe that we infer gravitationally, but its particle nature remains unknown. One important way to search for DM is direct detection, where underground experiments look for tiny nuclear recoils from DM–nucleus scattering. However, these experiments are mainly sensitive to the faster part of the DM velocity distribution. Celestial bodies offer a complementary handle. Slower DM particles can scatter inside them and lose enough energy to become gravitationally captured. This can open up parts of parameter space that are difficult to access with terrestrial detectors alone. In this talk, I will briefly summarise the direct detection picture and then introduce WimPyDD and WimPyC, two Python codes for computing direct detection signals and DM capture in celestial bodies. I will show example results where combining both approaches strengthens the overall constraints.
Dr Gaurav Tomar is a former faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna. He obtained his Master’s degree from the University of Delhi and his PhD in Physics from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad. Following his doctorate, he carried out postdoctoral research at PRL, Sogang University (Seoul), the Technical University of Munich (Germany), and Chungnam National University (South Korea). His research focuses on dark matter physics and the development of theoretical and computational tools for its detection, contributing to a deeper understanding of the Universe
Wageesh Mishra