Mineral Detection of Neutrinos and Dark Matter 2024. Proceedings

The second "Mineral Detection of Neutrinos and Dark Matter" (MDvDM'24)meeting was held January 8-11, 2024 in Arlington, VA, USA, hosted by VirginiaTech's Center for Neutrino Physics. This document collects contributions fromthis workshop, providing an overview of activities in the field. MDvDM'24 wasthe second topical workshop dedicated to the emerging field of mineraldetection of neutrinos and dark matter, following a meeting hosted by IFPU inTrieste, Italy in October 2022. Mineral detectors have been proposed for a widevariety of applications, including searching for dark matter, measuring variousfluxes of astrophysical neutrinos over gigayear timescales, monitoring nuclearreactors, and nuclear disarmament protocols; both as paleo-detectors usingnatural minerals that could have recorded the traces of nuclear recoils fortimescales as long as a billion years and as detectors recording nuclear recoilevents on laboratory timescales using natural or artificial minerals.Contributions to this proceedings discuss the vast physics potential, theprogress in experimental studies, and the numerous challenges lying ahead onthe path towards mineral detection. These include a better understanding of theformation and annealing of recoil defects in crystals; identifying the bestclasses of minerals and, for paleo-detectors, understanding their geology;modeling and control of the relevant backgrounds; developing, combining, andscaling up imaging and data analysis techniques; and many others. During thelast years, MDvDM has grown rapidly and gained attention. Small-scaleexperimental efforts focused on establishing various microscopic readouttechniques are underway at institutions in North America, Europe and Asia. Weare looking ahead to an exciting future full of challenges to overcome,surprises to be encountered, and discoveries lying ahead of us.