Fundamental physics with noble liquid detectors

The "standard model" of particle physics describes with astounding accuracy our world at energies below 100 GeV. Physics at the 1000 GeV scale will be explored with the large hadron collider (LHC), scheduled to become operational at CERN during 2007. While the LHC will arguably provide a quantum leap in our understanding, complementary experiments are being prepared to study a range of fundamental phenomena, such as: What is the mechanism of CP violation; What are the masses of the neutrinos; What is the nature of dark matter, accounting for about 25% of the matter in our Universe? These topics are being addressed with novel particle detectors, under construction or in the R&D phase. Common to many of them is the innovative use of noble liquids, from LHe to LNe, LAr, LKr and LXe. We discuss some representative examples and motivate the choice of the noble liquid. These detectors require improved understanding of the interaction of radiation with the liquid, the transport of the electrons and the physics at the liquid-gas interface.