No Arabic abstract
The search for the particle nature of dark matter has given rise to a number of experimental, theoretical and statistical challenges. Here, we report on a number of these statistical challenges and new techniques to address them, as discussed in the DMStat workshop held Feb 26 - Mar 3 2018 at the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) in Banff, Alberta.
In our recent companion paper [arXiv:2106.00022], we pointed out a novel signature of ultralight kinetically mixed dark-photon dark matter. This signature is a quasi-monochromatic, time-oscillating terrestrial magnetic field that takes a particular pattern over the surface of the Earth. In this work, we present a search for this signal in existing, unshielded magnetometer data recorded by geographically dispersed, geomagnetic stations. The dataset comes from the SuperMAG collaboration and consists of measurements taken with one-minute cadence since 1970, with $mathcal{O}(500)$ stations contributing in all. We aggregate the magnetic field measurements from all stations by projecting them onto a small set of global vector spherical harmonics (VSH) that capture the expected vectorial pattern of the signal at each station. Within each dark-photon coherence time, we use a data-driven technique to estimate the broadband background noise in the data, and search for excess narrowband power in this set of VSH components; we stack the searches in distinct coherence times incoherently. Following a Bayesian analysis approach that allows us to account for the stochastic nature of the dark-photon dark-matter field, we set exclusion bounds on the kinetic mixing parameter in the dark-photon dark-matter mass range $2times10^{-18} text{eV} lesssim m_{A} lesssim 7times10^{-17} text{eV}$ (corresponding to frequencies $6times 10^{-4} text{Hz}lesssim f_{A} lesssim 2times 10^{-2} text{Hz}$). These limits are complementary to various existing astrophysical constraints. Although our main analysis also identifies a number of candidate signals in the SuperMAG dataset, these appear to either fail or be in strong tension with various additional robustness checks we apply to those candidates: we report no robust and significant evidence for a dark-photon dark-matter signal in the SuperMAG dataset.
The majority of the matter in the universe is still unidentified and under investigation by both direct and indirect means. Many experiments searching for the recoil of dark-matter particles off target nuclei in underground laboratories have established increasingly strong constraints on the mass and scattering cross sections of weakly interacting particles, and some have even seen hints at a possible signal. Other experiments search for a possible mixing of photons with light scalar or pseudo-scalar particles that could also constitute dark matter. Furthermore, annihilation or decay of dark matter can contribute to charged cosmic rays, photons at all energies, and neutrinos. Many existing and future ground-based and satellite experiments are sensitive to such signals. Finally, data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN are scrutinized for missing energy as a signature of new weakly interacting particles that may be related to dark matter. In this review article we summarize the status of the field with an emphasis on the complementarity between direct detection in dedicated laboratory experiments, indirect detection in the cosmic radiation, and searches at particle accelerators.
This Letter reports results from a haloscope search for dark matter axions with masses between 2.66 and 2.81 $mu$eV. The search excludes the range of axion-photon couplings predicted by plausible models of the invisible axion. This unprecedented sensitivity is achieved by operating a large-volume haloscope at sub-kelvin temperatures, thereby reducing thermal noise as well as the excess noise from the ultra-low-noise SQUID amplifier used for the signal power readout. Ongoing searches will provide nearly definitive tests of the invisible axion model over a wide range of axion masses.
We study the underlying theory of dielectric haloscopes, a new way to detect dark matter axions. When an interface between different dielectric media is inside a magnetic field, the oscillating axion field acts as a source of electromagnetic waves, which emerge in both directions perpendicular to the surface. The emission rate can be boosted by multiple layers judiciously placed to achieve constructive interference and by a large transverse area. Starting from the axion-modified Maxwell equations, we calculate the efficiency of this new dielectric haloscope approach. This technique could potentially search the unexplored high-frequency range of 10--100 GHz (axion mass 40--400 $mu$eV), where traditional cavity resonators have difficulties reaching the required volume.
We report the results of a search for the inelastic scattering of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Scattering off $^{129}$Xe is the most sensitive probe of inelastic WIMP interactions, with a signature of a 39.6 keV de-excitation photon detected simultaneously with the nuclear recoil. Using an exposure of 0.89 tonne-years, we find no evidence of inelastic WIMP scattering with a significance of more than 2$sigma$. A profile-likelihood ratio analysis is used to set upper limits on the cross-section of WIMP-nucleus interactions. We exclude new parameter space for WIMPs heavier than 100 GeV/c${}^2$, with the strongest upper limit of $3.3 times 10^{-39}$ cm${}^2$ for 130 GeV/c${}^2$ WIMPs at 90% confidence level.