[ISL]

The technology spinoffs from DM-hunting are notable for the broader community.

The high-power dilution refrigerator that ADMX uses is of the same sort that the quantum-computing industry needs more and more of. Indeed, the students and staff being trained by ADMX are finding homes in both academia and across industry.

The high-sensitivity detector technology developed for WIMP searches have alternative use in nuclear non-proliferation monitoring. Improved detector ideas may continue to rattle down into medical imaging in the long run, improving some combination of sensitivity and dose.

The real prize, however, is what happens when the nature of dark matter is understood. It is a long-game play, but the technological implications might be on par with subjects like electricity, nuclear physics, quantum mechanics, etc. We won't know until we get there.

[sandworm101]

I know this. We know this. The public does not. DM hunters never talk about such things. All the public gets is "we used a massive detector to look something in this narrow spectrum, didn't find it, and will try again next year with an even bigger detector."

Any new detector should be described in terms of the new technologies it will require and how those new technologies will be used elsewhere. That gives it value regardless of whether it detects anything or not.