Can we directly measure the local distribution of Dark Matter from Earth?
Bradley Kavanagh (GRAPPA, University of Amsterdam)

Searches for particle Dark Matter (DM) in the Solar neighbourhood are rapidly gaining in sensitivity. With underground "direct" detectors, we can search for the nuclear scattering of the fastest DM particles in the Milky Way halo. Instead, using neutrino telescopes, we can probe the Solar capture and subsequent annihilation of the slowest DM particles. Unfortunately, calculating signals and constraints from such experiments depends on the uncertain distribution of DM near the Sun and Earth. Can we robustly account for these uncertainties in experimental analyses? I will present a number of approaches to solving this problem. Even better, I will also show that with a future discovery it should be possible to measure the local velocity distribution of DM and so learn something about the Milky Way and its formation history. I will also discuss ongoing work to show that in certain regions of the DM parameter space, it may be possible to directly measure the local DM density using direct detection alone. This will not only allow us to probe the DM distribution in our local neighbourhood but would also allow us to completely disentangle the astrophysical and particle physics properties of the elusive Dark Matter particle.