1. Producing particles in colliders
pros – technique used and worked to find Higgs boson, so now try to collide two photons of higher energy, resulting in chain of super symmetric particles decaying to WIMP particle, which then escapes detection so can be observed as missing energy
cons – even if determine missing energy don’t know how long survived for ( and have to know life for if only short, can’t be Dark Matter )
2. CMS detector
pros – waits for particles to hit detector and observe energy nuclei gains from collision, potential findings already
cons – hard to detect as interactions are rare, also this has to be carried out underground to avoid particles which have stronger interactions with nuclei ( so would mask any WIMP interaction ) such as cosmic rays
3. In-direct detection
– uses WIMPS annihilation, when they annihilate particles turn into photons of high energy ( gamma rays ), which detectors can then be used to look for
cons – less annihilation occurring between WIMPS now due to expansion of universe ( as antiparticle and particle pairs further apart so less likely to annihilate with each other )
pros – still excess DM in centre of galaxy, so if look there, possible to find the gamma rays produced by annihilation of WIMPS ( if more where detected than expected )