FOM archive's video: Physics@FOM Veldhoven 2016 - Masterclass Laura Baudis

Prior to Physics@FOM Veldhoven 2016, the programme committee organised four masterclasses. These classes offer PhDs and young postdocs a unique opportunity to receive an introduction to their discipline from top researchers. The state-of-the-art in the search for dark matter One of the major challenges of modern physics is to decipher the nature of dark matter. Astrophysical observations provide ample evidence for the existence of an invisible and dominant mass component in the observable universe, from the scales of galaxies up to the largest cosmological scales. The dark matter could be made of new, yet undiscovered elementary particles, with allowed masses and interaction strengths with normal matter spanning an enormous range. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which froze out of thermal equilibrium with a relic density matching the observations, represent a well-motivated, generic classes of dark matter candidates. They could be directly observed via scatters off atomic nuclei in underground, ultralow-background detectors, or indirectly, via secondary radiation produced when they pair annihilate. They could also be generated at particle colliders such as the LHC, where associated particles produced in the same process are to be detected. After a brief motivation and an introduction to the phenomenology of particle dark matter detection, Baudis will discuss the most promising experimental techniques to search for WIMPs, addressing their current and future science reach, as well as their complementarity. About the conference: Physics@FOM Veldhoven is a large congress that provides a topical overview of physics in the Netherlands. It is organised by the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) and takes place each year in January. Traditionally, young researchers are given the chance to present themselves and their work alongside renowned names from the Dutch and international physics community. The programme covers Light and matter, Atomic, molecular and optical physics, Nanoscience and nanotechnology, Statistical physics and Soft condensed matter, Surfaces and interfaces, Physics of fluids, Subatomic physics, Plasma and fusion physics, and Strongly correlated systems. http://www.fom.nl/veldhoven