Comparing readout strategies to directly detect dark matter

Over the past decades, several ideas and technologies have been developed to directly detect WIMP from the galactic halo. All these detection strategies share the common goal of discriminating a WIMP signal from the residual backgrounds. By directly detecting WIMPs, one can measure some or all of the observables associated to each nuclear recoil candidates, such as their energy and direction. In this study, we compare and examine the discovery potentials of each readout strategies from counting only (bubble chambers) to directional detectors (Time Projection Chambers) with 1d-, 2d-, and 3d-sensitivity. Using a profile likelihood analysis, we show that, in the case of a large and irreducible background contamination characterized by an energy distribution similar to the expected WIMP signal, directional information can improve the sensitivity of the experiment by several orders of magnitude. We also found that 1d directional detection is only less effective than a full 3d directional sensitivity by about a factor of 3, or 10 if we assume no sense recognition, still improving by a factor of 2 or more if only the energy of the events is being measured.

Solar neutrino physics with low-threshold dark matter detectors

Dark matter detectors will soon be sensitive to Solar neutrinos via two distinct channels: coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and neutrino electron elastic scattering. We establish an analysis method for extracting Solar model properties and neutrino properties from these measurements, including the possible effects of sterile neutrinos which have been hinted at by some reactor experiments and cosmological measurements. Even including sterile neutrinos, through the coherent scattering channel a 1 ton-year exposure with a low-threshold Germanium detector could improve on the current measurement of the normalization of the $^8$B Solar neutrino flux down to 3% or less. Combining with the elastic scattering data will provide constraints on both the high and low energy survival probability, and will improve on the uncertainty on the active-to-sterile mixing angle by a factor of two. This sensitivity to active-to-sterile transitions is competitive and complementary to forthcoming dedicated short baseline sterile neutrino searches with nuclear decays.

Complementarity of dark matter detectors in light of the neutrino background

Direct detection dark matter experiments looking for WIMP-nucleus elastic scattering will soon be sensitive to an irreducible background from neutrinos which will drastically affect their discovery potential. Here we explore how the neutrino background will affect future ton-scale experiments considering both spin-dependent and spin-independent interactions. We show that combining data from experiments using different targets can improve the dark matter discovery potential due to target complementarity. We find that in the context of spin-dependent interactions, combining results from several targets can greatly enhance the subtraction of the neutrino background for WIMP masses below 10 GeV/c$^2$ and therefore probe dark matter models to lower cross-sections. In the context of target complementarity, we also explore how one can tune the relative exposures of different target materials to optimize the WIMP discovery potential.

Implication of neutrino backgrounds on the reach of next generation dark matter direct detection experiments

As direct dark matter experiments continue to increase in size, they will become sensitive to neutrinos from astrophysical sources. For experiments that do not have directional sensitivity, coherent neutrino scattering (CNS) from several sources represents an important background to understand, as it can almost perfectly mimic an authentic WIMP signal. Here we explore in detail the effect of neutrino backgrounds on the discovery potential of WIMPs over the entire mass range of 500 MeV to 10 TeV. We show that, given the theoretical and measured uncertainties on the neutrino backgrounds, direct detection experiments lose sensitivity to light (~10 GeV) and heavy (~100 GeV) WIMPs with a spin-independent cross section below 10^{-45} cm^2 and 10^{-49} cm^2, respectively.

Is a co-rotating Dark Disk a threat to Dark Matter Directional Detection ?

Recent N-Body simulations are in favor of the presence of a co-rotating Dark Disk that might contribute significantly (10%-50%) to the local Dark Matter density. Such substructure could have dramatic effect on directional detection. Indeed, in the case of a null lag velocity, one expects an isotropic WIMP velocity distribution arising from the Dark Disk contribution, which might weaken the strong angular signature expected in directional detection. For a wide range of Dark Disk parameters, we evaluate in this Letter the effect of such dark component on the discovery potential of upcoming directional detectors. As a conclusion of our study, using only the angular distribution of nuclear recoils, we show that Dark Disk models as suggested by recent N-Body simulations will not affect significantly the Dark Matter reach of directional detection, even in extreme configurations.

Low energy electron/recoil discrimination for directional Dark Matter detection

Directional detection is a promising Dark Matter search strategy. Even though it could accommodate to a sizeable background contamination, electron/recoil discrimination remains a key and challenging issue as for direction-insensitive detectors. The measurement of the 3D track may be used to discriminate electrons from nuclear recoils. While a high rejection power is expected above 20 keV ionization, a dedicated data analysis is needed at low energy. After identifying discriminant observables, a multivariate analysis, namely a Boosted Decision Tree, is proposed, enabling an efficient event tagging for Dark Matter search. We show that it allows us to optimize rejection while keeping a rather high efficiency which is compulsory for rare event search.With respect to a sequential analysis, the rejection is about 20 times higher with a multivariate analysis, for the same Dark Matter exclusion limit.

Assessing the discovery potential of directional detection of Dark Matter

There is a worldwide effort toward the development of a large TPC (Time Projection Chamber) devoted to directional Dark Matter detection. All current projects are being designed to fulfill a unique goal : identifying weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) as such by taking advantage of the expected direction dependence of WIMP-induced events toward the constellation Cygnus. However such proof of discovery requires a careful statistical data treatment. In this paper, the discovery potential of forthcoming directional detectors is adressed by using a frequentist approach based on the profile likelihood ratio test statistic. This allows us to estimate the expected significance of a Dark Matter detection. Moreover, using this powerful test statistic, it is possible to propagate astrophysical and experimental uncertainties in the determination of the discovery potential of a given directional detection experiment. This way, we found that a 30 kg.year CF$_4$ directional experiment could reach a 3$sigma$ sensitivity at 90% C.L. down to $10^{-5}$ pb and $3.10^{-4}$ pb for the WIMP-proton axial cross section in the most optimistic and pessimistic scenario respectively.

Directional Detection of Dark Matter with MIMAC

Directional detection is a promising search strategy to discover galactic Dark Matter. We present a Bayesian analysis framework dedicated to Dark Matter phenomenology using directional detection. The interest of directional detection as a powerful tool to set exclusion limits, to authentify a Dark Matter detection or to constrain the Dark Matter properties, both from particle physics and galactic halo physics, will be demonstrated. However, such results need highly accurate track reconstruction which should be reachable by the MIMAC detector using a dedicated readout combined with a likelihood analysis of recoiling nuclei.

Directional detection of Dark Matter with MIMAC: WIMP identification and track reconstruction

Directional detection is a promising Dark Matter search strategy. Indeed, WIMP-induced recoils present a direction dependence toward the Cygnus constellation, while background-induced recoils exhibit an isotropic distribution in the galactic rest frame. Taking advantage on these characteristic features and even in the presence of a sizeable background, we show for the first time the possibility to constrain the WIMP properties, both from particle and galactic halo physics, leading to an identification of non-baryonic Dark Matter. However, such results need highly accurate track reconstruction which should be reachable by the MIMAC detector using a dedicated readout combined with a likelihood analysis of recoiling nuclei.

Directional detection of Dark Matter

Directional detection of galactic Dark Matter is a promising search strategy for discriminating genuine WIMP events from background ones. However, to take full advantage of this powerful detection method, one need to be able to extract information from an observed recoil map to identify a WIMP signal. We present a comprehensive formalism, using a map-based likelihood method allowing to recover the main incoming direction of the signal, thus proving its galactic origin, and the corresponding significance. Constraints are then deduced in the (sigma_n, m_chi) plane.