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Register a new userModel-Independent Identification of Inelastic WIMPs from Direct Dark Matter Detection Experiments
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In this paper, we introduce model-independent data analysis procedures for identifying inelastic WIMP-nucleus scattering as well as for reconstructing the mass and the mass splitting of inelastic WIMPs simultaneously and separately. Our simulations show that, with O(50) observed WIMP signals from one experiment, one could already distinguish the inelastic WIMP scattering scenarios from the elastic one. By combining two or more data sets with positive signals, the WIMP mass and the mass splitting could even be reconstructed with statistical uncertainties of less than a factor of two.
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In this paper, we revisit our model-independent methods developed for reconstructing properties of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) by using measured recoil energies from direct Dark Matter detection experiments directly and take into account more realistically non-negligible threshold energy. All expressions for reconstructing the mass and the (ratios between the) spin-independent and the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon couplings have been modified. We focus on low-mass (m_chi <~ 15 GeV) WIMPs and present the numerical results obtained by Monte Carlo simulations. Constraints caused by non-negligible threshold energy and technical treatments for improving reconstruction results will also be discussed.
The XENON100 and CRESST experiments will directly test the inelastic dark matter explanation for DAMAs 8.9? sigma anomaly. This article discusses how predictions for direct detection experiments depend on uncertainties in quenching factor measurements, the dark matter interaction with the Standard Model and the halo velocity distribution. When these uncertainties are accounted for, an order of magnitude variation is found in the number of expected events at CRESST and XENON100.
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. We develop a model-independent method for determining the mass $m_chi$ of the WIMP by using data (i.e., measured recoil energies) of direct detection experiments. Our method is independent of the as yet unknown WIMP density near the Earth, of the form of the WIMP velocity distribution, as well as of the WIMP-nucleus cross section. However, it requires positive signals from at least two detectors with different target nuclei. In a background-free environment, $m_chi sim 50$ GeV could in principle be determined with an error of $sim 35%$ with only $2 times 50$ events; in practice upper and lower limits on the recoil energy of signal events, imposed to reduce backgrounds, can increase the error. The method also loses precision if $m_chi$ significantly exceeds the mass of the heaviest target nucleus used.
In the past decades, several detector technologies have been developed with the quest to directly detect dark matter interactions and to test one of the most important unsolved questions in modern physics. The sensitivity of these experiments has improved with a tremendous speed due to a constant development of the detectors and analysis methods, proving uniquely suited devices to solve the dark matter puzzle, as all other discovery strategies can only indirectly infer its existence. Despite the overwhelming evidence for dark matter from cosmological indications at small and large scales, a clear evidence for a particle explaining these observations remains absent. This review summarises the status of direct dark matter searches, focussing on the detector technologies used to directly detect a dark matter particle producing recoil energies in the keV energy scale. The phenomenological signal expectations, main background sources, statistical treatment of data and calibration strategies are discussed.
We study the capabilities of the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR, a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment currently under construction at the Sanford Underground Laboratory, as a light WIMP detector. For a cross section near the current experimental bound, the MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR should collect hundreds or even thousands of recoil events. This opens up the possibility of simultaneously determining the physical properties of the dark matter and its local velocity distribution, directly from the data. We analyze this possibility and find that allowing the dark matter velocity distribution to float considerably worsens the WIMP mass determination. This result is traced to a previously unexplored degeneracy between the WIMP mass and the velocity dispersion. We simulate spectra using both isothermal and Via Lactea II velocity distributions and comment on the possible impact of streams. We conclude that knowledge of the dark matter velocity distribution will greatly facilitate the mass and cross section determination for a light WIMP.
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