  DARk matter WImp search with liquid xenoN (DARWIN) will be an experiment for
the direct detection of dark matter using a multi-ton liquid xenon time
projection chamber at its core. Its primary goal will be to explore the
experimentally accessible parameter space for Weakly Interacting Massive
Particles (WIMPs) in a wide mass-range, until neutrino interactions with the
target become an irreducible background. The prompt scintillation light and the
charge signals induced by particle interactions in the xenon will be observed
by VUV sensitive, ultra-low background photosensors. Besides its excellent
sensitivity to WIMPs above a mass of 5 GeV/c2, such a detector with its large
mass, low-energy threshold and ultra-low background level will also be
sensitive to other rare interactions. It will search for solar axions, galactic
axion-like particles and the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 136-Xe, as well
as measure the low-energy solar neutrino flux with <1% precision, observe
coherent neutrino-nucleus interactions, and detect galactic supernovae. We
present the concept of the DARWIN detector and discuss its physics reach, the
main sources of backgrounds and the ongoing detector design and R&D efforts.
