Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. For understanding the properties of WIMPs and identifying them among new particles produced at colliders (hopefully in the near future), determinations of their mass and their couplings on nucleons from direct Dark Matter detection experiments are essential. Based on our method for determining the WIMP mass model-independently from experimental data, we present a way to also estimate the spin-independent (SI) WIMP-nucleon coupling by using measured recoil energies directly. This method isindependent of the as yet unknown velocity distribution of halo WIMPs. In spite of the uncertainty of the local WIMP density (of a factor of ~ 2), at least an upper limit on the SI WIMP-nucleon coupling could be given, once two (or more) experiments with different target nuclei obtain positive signals. In a background-free environment, for a WIMP mass of 100 GeV its SI coupling on nucleons could in principle be estimated with a statistical error of only ~ 15% with just 50 events from each experiment.
The SIMPLE experiment is reanalyzed within the context of the WIMP model independent framework of Tovey et. al.. The results are compared with those of the UK NAIAD and NaF experiments as recently reported by the Tokyo group, together with those of the latest UK NAIAD results in 2003, and further constrain the allowed parameter space.
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. For understanding the nature of WIMPs and identifying them among new particles produced at colliders (hopefully in the near future), determinations of their mass and couplings on nucleons from direct Dark Matter detection experiments are essential. Based on our model-independent method for determining the WIMP mass from experimental data, I present a way to also estimate the spin-independent (SI) WIMP-nucleon coupling by using measured recoil energies directly. This method is independent of the velo…
The discovery of a Standard Model-like Higgs boson and the hitherto absence of evidence for other new states may indicate that if WIMPs comprise cosmological dark matter, they are heavy compared to electroweak scale particles, $M \gg m_{W^\pm}, m_{Z^0}$. In this limit, the absolute cross section for a WIMP of given electroweak quantum numbers to scatter from a nucleon becomes computable in terms of Standard Model parameters. We develop effective field theory techniques to analyze the heavy WIMP limit of WIMP-nucleon scattering, and present the first complete calculation of the leading spin-ind…
We consider a degenerate or a nearly degenerate dark matter sector where a sizable magnetic moment of an almost Dirac type neutral dark matter candidate N is anticipated. Then, due to soft photon exchange, the cross-section in direct detection of N can be enhanced at low Q^2 region. We discuss the implication of this type of models in view of the recent CDMS II report.
We put constraints on asymmetric dark matter candidates with spin-dependent interactions based on the simple existence of white dwarfs and neutron stars in globular clusters. For a wide range of the parameters (WIMP mass and WIMP-nucleon cross section), WIMPs can be trapped in progenitors in large numbers and once the original star collapses to a white dwarf or a neutron star, these WIMPs might self-gravitate and eventually collapse forming a mini-black hole that eventually destroys the star. We impose constraints competitive to direct dark matter search experiments, for WIMPs with masses down…
Among dark-matter candidates are the WIMPs (Weekly Interacting Massive Particles). Low-threshold detectors could directly detect dark-matter by measuring the energy deposited by the particles. In this work we examine the cross section for the elastic scattering of WIMPs on nucleons, in the spin-dependent and spin-independent channels. WIMPs are taken as neutralinos in the context of the minimal super-symmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM). The dependence of the results with the adopted MSSM parameters is discussed.
Annual modulation due to the Earth's motion around the Sun is a well known signature of the expected WIMP signal induced in a solid state underground detector. In the present letter we discuss the prospects of this technique on statistical grounds, introducing annual-modulation sensitivity plots for the WIMP-nucleon scalar cross section for different materials and experimental conditions. The highest sensitivity to modulation is found in the WIMP mass interval 10 GeV< m_W < 130 GeV, the actual upper limit depending from the choice of the astrophysical parameters, while the lowest values of the…
As experimental sensitivity increases, one is approaching the range of WIMP-nucleon interaction strengths characteristic of neutralinos. But this continuing progress also unearths new experimental challenges and uncertainties.
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. So far the usual procedure for constraining the WIMP-nucleon cross sections in direct Dark Matter detection experiments have been to fit the predicted event rate based on some model(s) of the Galactic halo and of WIMPs to experimental data. One has to assume whether the spin-independent (SI) or the spin-dependent (SD) WIMP-nucleus interaction dominates, and results of such data analyses are also expressed as functions of the as yet unknown WIMP mass. In this article, I introduce methods for extracti…
Annihilation of dark matter particles accumulated in the Sun would produce a flux of high-energy neutrinos whose prospects of detection in neutrino telescopes and detectors have been extensively discussed in the literature. However, for annihilations into Standard Model particles, there would also be a flux of neutrinos in the MeV range from the decays at rest of muons and positively charged pions. These low-energy neutrinos have never been considered before and they open the possibility to also constrain dark matter annihilation in the Sun into e+e-, mu+mu- or light quarks. Here we perform a …
In our work on the development of a model-independent data analysis method for estimating the spin-independent (SI) scalar coupling of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) on nucleons by using measured recoil energies from direct Dark Matter detection experiments directly, it was assumed that the analyzed data sets are background-free, i.e., all events are WIMP signals. In this article, as a more realistic study, we take into account a fraction of possible residue background events, which pass all discrimination criteria and then mix with other real WIMP-induced events in our data sets…
In this work we confront dark matter models to constraints that may be derived from radio synchrotron radiation from the Galaxy, taking into account the astrophysical uncertainties and we compare these to bounds set by accelerator and complementary indirect dark matter searches. Specifically we apply our analysis to three popular particle physics models. First, a generic effective operator approach, in which case we set bounds on the corresponding mass scale, and then, two specific UV completions, the Z' and Higgs portals. We show that for many candidates, the radio synchrotron limits are comp…
We consider the dark matter (DM) scenarios consisting of the mixture of WIMPs and PBHs and study how much fraction of the total DM can be PBHs. In such scenarios, PBHs can accrete the WIMPs and consequently enhance the heating and ionization in the intergalactic medium due to WIMP annihilations. We demonstrate that the CMB data can give the stringent bounds on the allowed PBH fraction which are comparable or even tighter than those from the gamma ray data depending on the DM masses. For instance, the MCMC likelihood analysis using the Planck CMB data leads to the bound on PBH DM fraction with …
We introduce a systematic approach to characterize the most general non-relativistic WIMP-nucleus interaction allowed by Galilean invariance for a WIMP of arbitrary spin $j_χ$ in the approximation of one-nucleon currents. Five nucleon currents arise from the nonrelativistic limit of the free nucleon Dirac bilinears. Our procedure consists in (1) organizing the WIMP currents according to the rank of the $2 j_χ+1$ irreducible operator products of up to $2 j_χ$ WIMP spin vectors, and (2) coupling each of the WIMP currents to each of the five nucleon currents. The transferred momentum $q$ appears …
A weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) is perhaps the most promising candidate for the dark matter in the Galactic halo. The WIMP detection rate in laboratory searches is fixed by the cross section for elastic WIMP-nucleus scattering. Here we calculate the contribution to this cross section from two-nucleon currents from pion exchange in the nucleus, and show that it may in some cases be comparable to the one-nucleon current that has been considered in prior work, and perhaps help resolve the discrepancies between the various direct dark-matter search experiments. We provide simple expre…
We present PandaX-II constraints on candidate WIMP-nucleon effective interactions involving the nucleon or WIMP spin, including, in addition to standard axial spin-dependent (SD) scattering, various couplings among vector and axial currents, magnetic and electric dipole moments, and tensor interactions. The data set corresponding to a total exposure of 54-ton-days is reanalyzed to determine constraints as a function of the WIMP mass and isospin coupling. We obtain WIMP-nucleon cross section bounds of $\rm 1.6 \times 10^{-41} cm^2$ and $\rm 9.0 \times 10^{-42} cm^2$ ($90\%$ c.l.) for neutron-on…
It is shown that the new data of the DAMA/NaI detector, combined with recent calculations of nuclear structure functions, provide the most stringent upper bounds on the WIMP-nucleon cross-section both for spin-dependent and for scalar interactions. It is proved that, for the first time, data from an experiment of direct search for WIMPs allow the exploration of a region of the supersymmetric parameter space not yet fully investigated at accelerators.
We show how to avoid unnecessary and uncontrolled assumptions usually made in the literature about soft SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking in determining the two-flavor nucleon matrix elements relevant for direct detection of WIMPs. Based on SU(2) Chiral Perturbation Theory, we provide expressions for the proton and neutron scalar couplings $f_u^{p,n}$ and $f_d^{p,n}$ with the pion-nucleon sigma-term as the only free parameter, which should be used in the analysis of direct detection experiments. This approach for the first time allows for an accurate assessment of hadronic uncertainties in spin-i…
WIMP-nucleon scattering is analyzed at order $1/M$ in Heavy WIMP Effective Theory. The $1/M$ power corrections, where $M\gg m_W$ is the WIMP mass, distinguish between different underlying UV models with the same universal limit and their impact on direct detection rates can be enhanced relative to naive expectations due to generic amplitude-level cancellations at leading order. The necessary one- and two-loop matching calculations onto the low-energy effective theory for WIMP interactions with Standard Model quarks and gluons are performed for the case of an electroweak SU(2) triplet WIMP, con…
We study the possibility of identifying dark matter properties from XENON-like 100 kg experiments and the GLAST satellite mission. We show that whereas direct detection experiments will probe efficiently light WIMPs, given a positive detection (at the 10% level for $m_χ \lesssim 50$ GeV), GLAST will be able to confirm and even increase the precision in the case of a NFW profile, for a WIMP-nucleon cross-section $σ_{χ-p} \lesssim 10^{-8}$ pb. We also predict the rate of production of a WIMP in the next generation of colliders (ILC), and compare their sensitivity to the WIMP mass with the XENON …
The common analysis of direct searches for spin-independent Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) assumes that a spin-independent WIMP couples with the same strength with both nucleons, \textit{i.e.} that the spin-independent interaction is also fully isospin-independent. Though in a fully isospin-dependent interaction scenario the spin-independent WIMP-nucleus cross section is strongly quenched, the leading experiments are still sensitive enough to set limits 1-2 orders of magnitude less stringent than those traditionally presented. In the isospin-dependent scenario the difference betw…
The effects of a possible rotation of the galactic dark halo on the calculation of the direct detection rates for particle dark matter are analyzed, with special attention to the extraction of the upper limits on the WIMP--nucleon scalar cross section from the experimental data. We employ a model of dark halo rotation which describes the maximal possible effects. For WIMP masses above 50 GeV, the upper limit exclusion plot is modified by less than a factor of two when rotation is included. For lighter masses the effect can be stronger, suggesting the necessity to develop specific models of hal…
In our work on the development of model-independent data analysis methods for determining ratios between different couplings/cross sections of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) by using measured recoil energies from direct Dark Matter detection experiments directly, it was assumed that the analyzed data sets are background-free, i.e., all events are WIMP signals. In this article, as a more realistic study, we take into account a fraction of possible residue background events, which pass all discrimination criteria and then mix with other real WIMP-induced events in our data sets. Ou…
We discuss long-distance QCD corrections to the WIMP-nucleon(s) interactions in the framework of chiral effective theory. For scalar-mediated WIMP-quark interactions, we calculate all the next-to-leading-order corrections to the WIMP-nucleus elastic cross-section, including two-nucleon amplitudes and recoil-energy dependent shifts to the single-nucleon scalar form factors. As a consequence, the scalar-mediated WIMP-nucleus cross-section cannot be parameterized in terms of just two quantities, namely the neutron and proton scalar form factors at zero momentum transfer, but additional parameters…
We combine experimental constraints from direct detection searches and from neutrino telescopes looking for WIMP annihilations in the Sun to derive halo-independent bounds on each of the 28 WIMP-proton and WIMP-neutron couplings of the effective non-relativistic Hamiltonian that drives the scattering process off nuclei of a WIMP of spin 1/2. The method assumes that the velocity distribution is normalized to one and homogeneous at the the solar system scale, as well as equilibrium between WIMP capture and annihilation in the Sun, and requires to fix the WIMP annihilation channels (we assume $b\…
New constraints are presented on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interaction from the PandaX-II experiment, using a data set corresponding to a total exposure of 3.3$\times10^4$ kg-days. Assuming a standard axial-vector spin-dependent WIMP interaction with $^{129}$Xe and $^{131}$Xe nuclei, the most stringent upper limits on WIMP-neutron cross sections for WIMPs with masses above 10 GeV/c$^{2}$ are set in all dark matter direct detection experiments. The minimum upper limit of $4.1\times 10^{-41}$ cm$^2$ at 90\% confidence level is obtained for a WIMP mass of 40 GeV/c$^{2}$. This represents mor…
We study the possibility of identifying dark matter properties from direct (XENON100) and indirect (GLAST) detection experiments. In the same way, we examine the perspectives given by the next generation of colliders (ILC). All this analysis is done following a model-independent approach. We have shown that the three detection techniques can act in a highly complementary way. whereas direct detection experiments will probe efficiently light WIMPs, given a positive detection (at the 10% level for $m_χ \sim 50$ GeV), GLAST will be able to confirm and even increase the precision in the case of a …
Models of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) specified at the electroweak scale are systematically matched to effective theories at hadronic scales where WIMP-nucleus scattering observables are evaluated. Anomalous dimensions and heavy quark threshold matching conditions are computed for the complete basis of lowest-dimension effective operators involving quarks and gluons. The resulting QCD renormalization group evolution equations are solved. The status of relevant hadronic matrix elements is reviewed and phenomenological illustrations are given, including details for the computati…
We perform a generalized analysis of data from WIMP search experiments for point-like WIMPs of arbitrary spin and general Lorenz-invariant WIMP-nucleus interaction. We show that in the non-relativistic limit only spin-independent (SI) and spin-dependent (SD) WIMP-nucleon interactions survive, which can be parameterized by only five independent parameters. We explore this five-dimensional parameter space to determine whether the annual modulation observed in the DAMA experiment can be consistent with all other experiments. The pure SI interaction is ruled out except for very small region of par…
In this work we numerically re-examine the loop-induced WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section for the simplified dark matter models and the constraint set by the latest direct detection experiment. We consider a fermion, scalar or vector dark matter component from five simplified models with leptophobic spin-0 mediators coupled only to Standard Model quarks and dark matter particles. The tree-level WIMP-nucleon cross sections in these models are all momentum-suppressed. We calculate the non-suppressed spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross sections from loop diagrams and investigate the constrain…
We present LUXCalc, a new utility for calculating likelihoods and deriving WIMP-nucleon coupling limits from the recent results of the LUX direct search dark matter experiment. After a brief review of WIMP-nucleon scattering, we derive LUX limits on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon couplings over a broad range of WIMP masses, under standard assumptions on the relevant astrophysical parameters. We find that, under these and other common assumptions, LUX excludes the entire spin-dependent parameter space consistent with a dark matter interpretation of DAMA's anomalous signal, the first time a sin…
We investigate the interactions of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS) with nucleons in nuclear medium by taking into account the effect of nuclear dynamics. We derive the nonrelativistic effective operators starting from the relativistic mean-field approximation. Certain interactions receive non-negligible corrections, which may significantly change the sensitivities of WIMP-nucleus scattering cross section to these effective operators.
Spin-dependent WIMP searches have traditionally presented results within an odd group approximation and by suppressing one of the spin-dependent interaction cross sections. We here elaborate on a model-independent analysis in which spin-dependent interactions with both protons and neutrons are simultaneously considered. Within this approach, equivalent current limits on the WIMP-nucleon interaction at WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c$^{2}$ are either $σ_{p}\leq0.7$ pb, $σ_{n}\leq0.2$ pb or $|a_{p}|\leq0.4$, $|a_{n}|\leq0.7$ depending on the choice of cross section or coupling strength representation. The…
We present new experimental constraints on the elastic, spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross section using recent data from the XENON100 experiment, operated in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. An analysis of 224.6 live days x 34 kg of exposure acquired during 2011 and 2012 revealed no excess signal due to axial-vector WIMP interactions with 129-Xe and 131-Xe nuclei. This leads to the most stringent upper limits on WIMP-neutron cross sections for WIMP masses above 6 GeV, with a minimum cross section of 3.5 x 10^{-40} cm^2 at a WIMP mass of 45 GeV, at 90% confidence level.
In this paper we consider loop corrections to the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section in bottom-quark flavored scalar-type dark matter models. We focus on two scenarios: (a) a complex scalar dark matter with a scalar particle as the mediator; and (b) a real scalar dark matter with a vector boson as the mediator. In both scenarios, the direct detection cross sections are either spin-dependent or kinematically forbidden at the tree-level. Corrections induced by the WIMP-gluon effective operator, scalar-type WIMP-quark effective operator, and the twist-2 effective operator are …
The continuously improving sensitivity of dark matter direct detection experiments has limited the interaction between dark matter and nucleons being increasingly feeble, while the dark matter relic density favors it to take part in weak interactions. After taking into account the constraints from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) search for Higgs bosons and sparticles, it is becoming difficult for the neutralino dark matter in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model to possess these two seemingly paradoxical features in their most natural …
We describe in detail how perturbations due to the planets can cause a sub-population of WIMPs captured by scattering in surface layers of the Sun to evolve to have orbits which no longer intersect the Sun. We argue that such WIMPs, if their orbit has a semi-major axis less than 1/2 of Jupiter's, can persist in the solar system for cosmological timescales. This leads to a new, previously unanticipated WIMP population intersecting the Earth's orbit. The WIMP-nucleon cross sections required for this population to be significant are precisely those in the range predicted for SUSY dark matter, lyi…
The signals observed at the direct detection experiments DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST could be explained by light WIMPs with sizeable spin-independent cross sections with nucleons. The capture and subsequent annihilation of such particles in the sun would induce neutrino signals in the GeV range which may be observed at Super-Kamiokande. We determine the rate of upward stopping muons and fully contained events at Super-Kamiokande for various possible WIMP annihilation channels. This allows us to provide strong constraints on the cross section of WIMPs with nucleons. We find that the DAMA and CoGeNT…
We study the amplitude for the spin-dependent WIMP scattering off nuclei by including the leading long-range two-body currents in the most important isovector contribution. We show that such effects are essentially independent of the target nucleus and, as a result, they can be treated as a mere renormalization of the effective nucleon cross section or, equivalently, of the corresponding effective coupling with values around 25%.
WIMPless dark matter offers an attractive framework in which dark matter can be very light. We investigate the implications of such scenarios on invisible decays of bottomonium states for dark matter with a mass less than around $5 {\rm GeV}$. We relate these decays to measurements of nucleon-dark matter elastic scattering. We also investigate the effect that a coupling to $s$ quarks has on flavor changing $b\to s$ processes involving missing energy.
I calculate the rate of WIMP capture and annihilation in the Earth in the non-relativistic effective theory of dark matter-nucleon interactions. Neglecting operator interference, I consider all Galilean invariant interaction operators that can arise from the exchange of a heavy particle of spin less than or equal to one when WIMPs have spin 0, 1/2 or 1. I compute position and shape of the expected resonances in the mass - capture rate plane and show that Iron is not the most important element in the capture process for many currently ignored interaction operators. I compare these predictions w…
We propose a scheme that allows to analytically determine the three elementary cross sections and connect the solutions to the relative sign between the proton and the neutron spin scattering amplitudes once the measurements of total event rate from three appropriate targets become available. In this way it is thus possible to extract the maximum information on the supersymmetric parameter space obtainable from direct detection experiments, in the case that the dark matter particle is the lightest neutralino. Our scheme is based on suitably normalized form of the isospin momentum dependent str…
We assess the prospects for indirect detection of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles using a large Liquid Argon TPC detector. Signal events will consist of energetic electron (anti)neutrinos coming from the decay of $τ$ leptons and $b$ quarks produced in WIMP annihilation in the core of the Sun. Background contamination from atmospheric neutrinos is expected to be low, thanks to the superb angular resolution and particle identification capabilities provided by the considered experimental set-up. We evaluate the event rates predicted for an annihilating WIMP as a function of its elastic scatt…
Dark Matter experiments searching for Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) primarily use nuclear recoils (NRs) in their attempt to detect WIMPs. Migdal-induced electronic recoils (ERs) provide additional sensitivity to light Dark Matter with $\mathcal{O}(\text{GeV}/c^2)$ masses. In this work, we use Bayesian inference to find the parameter space where future detectors like XENONnT and SuperCDMS SNOLAB will be able to detect WIMP Dark Matter through NRs, Migdal-induced ERs or a combination thereof. We identify regions where each detector is best at constraining the Dark Matter mass and …
The differential event rate for direct detection of dark matter, both the time averaged and the modulated one due to the motion of the Earth, are discussed. The calculations focus on relatively light cold dark matter candidates (WIMP) and low energy transfers. It is shown that for sufficiently light WIMPs the extraction of relatively large nucleon cross sections is possible. Furthermore for some WIMP masses the modulation amplitude may change sign, meaning that, in such a case, the maximum rate may occur six months later than naively expected. This effect can be exploited to yield information …
We have considered neutralino to be the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) in the framework of minimal Anomaly Mediated Supersymmetric (mAMSB) model. We have studied variation of neutralino mass with the supersymmetric parameters. Considering these neutralinos to be the candidates for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) or cold dark matter (CDM), we have calculated the neutralino nucleon scalar cross-sections and compared them with DAMA-NaI neutralino direct detection search results. From this study we observe that the mAMSB model results cannot explain the allowed region in WIMP ma…
We report the first experimental results on spin-dependent elastic weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) nucleon scattering from the XENON1T dark matter search experiment. The analysis uses the full ton year exposure of XENON1T to constrain the spin-dependent proton-only and neutron-only cases. No significant signal excess is observed, and a profile likelihood ratio analysis is used to set exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon interactions. This includes the most stringent constraint to date on the WIMP-neutron cross section, with a minimum of $6.3\times10^{-42}$ cm$^2$ at 30 GeV/c${}^2$ a…
Extensive searches to probe the particle nature of dark matter (DM) have been going on for some decades now but, so far, no conclusive evidence has been found. Among various options, the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) remains one of the prime possibilities as candidates for DM near the TeV scale. Taking a phenomenological view, such null results may be explained for a generic WIMP in a Higgs-portal scenario if we allow the light-quark Yukawa couplings to assume non-Standard Model (non-SM)-like values. This follows from a cancellation among different terms in the DM-nucleon scatter…
The standard model (SM) plus a real gauge-singlet scalar field dubbed darkon (SM+D) is the simplest model possessing a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark-matter candidate. The upper limits for the WIMP-nucleon elastic cross-section as a function of WIMP mass from the recent XENON10 and CDMS-II experiments rule out darkon mass ranges from 10 to (50,70,75) GeV for Higgs-boson masses of (120,200,350) GeV, respectively. This may exclude the possibility of the darkon providing an explanation for the gamma-ray excess observed in the EGRET data. We show that by extending the SM+D to a tw…
We present formalism necessary to determine weak-scale matching coefficients in the computation of scattering cross sections for putative dark matter candidates interacting with the Standard Model. Particular attention is paid to the heavy-particle limit. A consistent renormalization scheme in the presence of nontrivial residual masses is implemented. Two-loop diagrams appearing in the matching to gluon operators are evaluated. Details are given for the computation of matching coefficients in the universal limit of WIMP-nucleon scattering for pure states of arbitrary quantum numbers, and for s…
The electric dipole moment (EDM) of an atom could arise also from $P$-odd and $T$-odd electron-nucleon couplings. In this work we investigate a general class of dimension-$6$ electron-nucleon ($e$-$N$) nonminimal interactions mediated by Lorentz-violating (LV) tensors of rank ranging from $1$ to $4$. The possible couplings are listed as well as their behavior under $C$, $P$ and $T$, allowing us to select the couplings compatible with EDM physics. The unsuppressed contributions of these couplings to the atom's Hamiltonian can be read as EDM-equivalent. The LV coefficients' magnitudes are limite…
Electric dipole moments of atoms can arise from P-odd and T-odd electron--nucleon couplings. This work studies a general class of dimension-six electron--nucleon interactions mediated by Lorentz-violating tensors of ranks ranging from $1$ to $4$. The possible couplings are listed as well as their behavior under C, P, and T, allowing us to select the couplings compatible with electric-dipole-moment physics. The unsuppressed contributions of these couplings to the atom's hamiltonian can be read as equivalent to an electric dipole moment. The Lorentz-violating coefficients' magnitudes are limited…
We show that compatibility between the DAMA modulation result (as well as less statistically significant excesses such as the CDMS Silicon effect and the excess claimed by CRESST) with constraints from other experiments can be achieved by extending the analysis of direct detection data beyond the standard elastic scattering of a WIMP off nuclei with a spin--dependent or a spin--independent cross section and with a velocity distribution as predicted by the Isothermal Sphere model. To do so we discuss several new approaches for the analysis of Dark Matter direct detection data, with the goal to …
A new method is proposed for extracting limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interaction cross sections from direct detection dark matter experiments. The new method has the advantage that the limits on individual WIMP-proton and WIMP-neutron cross sections for a given WIMP mass can be combined in a simple way to give a model-independent limit on the properties of WIMPs scattering from both protons and neutrons in the target nucleus. Extension of the technique to the case of a target material consisting of several different species of nuclei is discussed.
We present nuclear structure factors that describe the generalized spin-independent coupling of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) to nuclei. Our results are based on state-of-the-art nuclear structure calculations using the large-scale nuclear shell model. Starting from quark- and gluon-level operators, we consider all possible coherently enhanced couplings of spin-1/2 and spin-0 WIMPs to one and two nucleons up to third order in chiral effective field theory. This includes a comprehensive discussion of the structure factors corresponding to the leading two-nucleon currents covering…
Constraints on the Yukawa-type corrections to Newton's gravitational law and on the coupling constant of axionlike particles to nucleons obtained from different laboratory experiments are reviewed and compared. The constraints on non-Newtonian gravity under discussion cover the wide interaction range from nanometers to millimeters and follow from the experiments on neutron scattering, measuring the Casimir force and Cavendish-type experiments. The constraints on the axion-to-nucleon coupling constant following from the magnetometer measurements, Cavendish-type experiments, Casimir physics, and…
We reexamine the model-independent data analysis methods for extracting properties of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) by using data (measured recoil energies) from direct Dark Matter detection experiments directly and, as a more realistic study, consider a small fraction of residue background events, which pass all discrimination criteria and then mix with other real WIMP-induced signals in the analyzed data sets. In this talk, the effects of residue backgrounds on the determination of the WIMP mass as well as the spin-independent WIMP coupling on nucleons will be discussed.
