Direct Dark Matter Detection in the Milky Way

One of the major challenges of modern physics is to decipher the nature of dark matter.  Dark matter could be made of new elementary particles with allowed masses and interaction strengths spanning an enormous range.  Among these, particles with masses in the MeV-TeV range might be directly observed via scatters with atomic nuclei or electrons in ultra-low background detectors operated deep underground.  After an introduction to the dark matter problem, I will discuss the most promising direct detection techniques, addressing their current and future science reach, as well as their complementarity. The focus will be on two-phase xenon TPCs: I will show recent results and plans for the future.