New class of biological detectors for WIMPs

Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) may constitute a large fraction of the matter in the Universe. There are excess events in the data of DAMA/LIBRA, CoGeNT, CRESST-II, and recently CDMS-Si, which could be consistent with WIMP masses of approximately 10 GeV/c 2. However, for M DM > 10 GeV/c 2 null results of the CDMS-Ge, XENON, and LUX detectors may be in tension with the potential detections for certain dark matter scenarios and assuming a certain light response. We propose the use of a new class of biological dark matter (DM) detectors to further examine this light dark matter hypothesis, taking advantage of new signatures with low atomic number targets. Two types of biological DM detectors are discussed here: DNA-based detectors and enzymatic reactions (ER) based detectors. In the case of DNA-based detectors, we discuss a new implementation. In the case of ER detectors, there are four crucial phases of the detection process: (a) change of state due to energy deposited by a particle; (b) amplification due to the release of energy derived from the action of an enzyme on its substrate; (c) sustainable but nonexplosive enzymatic reaction; (d) self-termination due to the denaturation of the enzyme, when the temperature is raised. This paper provides information of how to design as well as optimize these four processes. In the mid 20th century, new classes of particle/radiation detectors were introduced about every five years. The last new classes of detectors were introduced about 30 and 25 years ago, namely cryogenic particle detectors and liquid noble gas detectors, respectively. Yet there are needs of physics and biology which require new classes of detectors with nano-metric spatial resolution e.g. detection of Dark Matter (DM) candidates and detectors for mass-spectroscopy. The first generation of particle/radiation detectors consisted of photographic emulsions and gas detectors. The majority of modern particle detectors are liquids and solid-state detectors. All of these detectors have, as output, either photons or electrons, which are easy to count with modern photonics and/or electronics. We propose a new class of detectors, which use thermal processes or molecular transformations to detect particle interaction effect(s). One of the byproducts of the development of molecular biology and nanotechnology is that we now understand and can engineer material properties at a scale of a few nanometers. This includes better understanding of heat propagation processes at the nanoscale. We can produce a wide variety of nano-size objects and …