Among the direct search experiments for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter, the DAMA experiment observed an annual modulation signal interpreted as WIMP interactions with a significance of 9.2$σ$. Recently, Jonathan Davis claimed that the DAMA modulation may be interpreted on the basis of the neutron scattering events induced by the muons and neutrinos together. We tried to simulate the neutron backgrounds at the Gran Sasso and Yangyang laboratory with and without the polyethylene shielding to quantify the effects of the ambient neutrons on the direct detection experiments based on the crystals.
Centro de Astropartículas y Física de Altas Energías (CAPA), Universidad de Zaragoza（萨拉戈萨大学高能物理与天体粒子中心）；Wright Laboratory, Department of Physics, Yale University（耶鲁大学物理系莱特实验室）
The annual modulation of scintillation event rate observed by the DAMA/LIBRA experiment has been a long-standing controversy in the quest of the direct detection of dark matter. The effort to definitively confirm or refute the annual modulation has turned out to be challenging due to the lack of NaI(Tl) crystals with high enough radio-purity. Most recently, we successfully grew a 6-kg ingot free from contamination during growth, from which a 3.4-kg crystal scintillator was made. The $^{39}$K concentration in the final crystal is estimated to be 4.3$\pm$0.2~ppb, unprecedented for NaI(Tl) crysta…
We present the first search for a dark matter annual modulation signal in the Southern Hemisphere conducted with NaI(Tl) detectors, performed by the DM-Ice17 experiment. Nuclear recoils from dark matter interactions are expected to yield an annually modulated signal independent of location within the Earth's hemispheres. DM-Ice17, the first step in the DM-Ice experimental program, consists of 17 kg of NaI(Tl) located at the South Pole under 2200 m.w.e. overburden of Antarctic glacial ice. Taken over 3.6 years for a total exposure of 60.8 kg yr, DM-Ice17 data are consistent with no modulation i…
Analysis of the 40K contamination in NaI(Tl) crystals from different providers in the frame of the ANAIS project
利用NaI（Tl）大晶体在探测器中的闪烁信号，通过探测器中目标核的弹性散射，寻找银河系中的暗物质粒子。然而，以核反冲形式沉积的能量很小，这增加了将该能量转换成闪烁的低效率，使得处于或非常接近能量阈值的事件，归因于放射性背景或伪噪声（非本体NaI（Tl）闪烁事件），可以损害这样的实验的灵敏度目标。DAMA/LIBRA实验，使用250公斤碘化钠（铊）目标，报告了第一个证据的存在，每年调制的检测率与预期的暗物质信号在6 keVee（电子当量能量）以下的区域兼容。在ANAIS（Annual modulation with NaI Scintillators）暗物质搜寻计划的框架内，为了理解大型碘化钠探测器中极低能量事件的起源，并开发方便的滤波器以滤除那些与大块NaI（Tl）晶体中的闪烁无关的事件，进行了大量而长期的努力。40 K可能是NaI（Tl）探测器中最相关的放射性污染物，因为它在非常低的能量下对本底有重要的贡献。ANAIS的目标是达到或低于20 ppb的天然钾水平。在本文中，我们将报告我们的努力，以确定40 K污染的几个NaI（Tl）晶体之间的符合测量，其中两个（或更多）。本文将比较不同供应商的晶体40 K含量的结果，并简要回顾ANAIS暗物质搜索实验的前景。
Testing the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation result independently of dark matter particle and halo models has been a challenge for twenty years. Using the same target material, NaI(Tl), is required and presently two experiments, ANAIS-112 and COSINE-100, are running for such a goal. A precise knowledge of the detector response to nuclear recoils is mandatory because this is the most likely channel to find the dark matter signal. The light produced by nuclear recoils is quenched with respect to that produced by electrons by a factor that has to be measured experimentally. However, current quenching…
We present the responses of a NaI(Tl) crystal in terms of the light yield and pulse shape characteristics of nuclear recoil events at two different temperatures: 22 C (room temperature) and -35 C (low temperature). The light yield is measured using 59.54 keV gamma-rays using a 241Am source relative to the mean charge of single photoelectrons. At the low temperature, we measure a 4.7 +/- 1.3% increase in the light yield compared to that at room temperature. A significantly increased decay time is also observed at the low temperature. The responses to nuclear recoil events are measured using neu…
We point out that two models that reconcile the neutron lifetime anomaly via dark decays of the neutron, also predict dark matter-neutron ($\barχ-n$) annihilation that may be observable in neutron-antineutron oscillation and proton decay searches at Super-Kamiokande, Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE. We study signatures of $\barχn\to γπ^0$ (or multi-$π^0$) and $\barχn\to ϕγπ^0$ (or $ϕ+$multi-$π^0$), where $ϕ$ is an almost massless boson in one of the two models.
Neutron stars capture dark matter efficiently. The kinetic energy transferred during capture heats old neutron stars in the local galactic halo to temperatures detectable by upcoming infrared telescopes. We derive the sensitivity of this probe in the framework of effective operators. For dark matter heavier than a GeV, we find that neutron star heating can set limits on the effective operator cutoff that are orders of magnitude stronger than possible from terrestrial direct detection experiments in the case of spin-dependent and velocity-suppressed scattering.
Neutrons are a particularly dangerous background for direct WIMP dark matter searches; their nuclear recoils with the target nucleus are often indistinguishable from nuclear recoils produced by WIMP-nuclear collisions. In this study, we explore the concept of a liquid scintillator neutron veto detector that would allow direct dark matter detectors to potentially reject neutrons with greater than 99% efficiency. Here we outline the construction and testing of a small prototype detector and the potential implications of this technology for future dark matter detectors.
Is the Turner Window Open? Seeking Closure with Resonant Absorption of Galactic Axions in NaI Dark Matter Detectors
University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington（华盛顿大学核理论研究所）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；Queen’s University（女王大学）；The Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute（亚瑟·B·麦克唐纳加拿大天体粒子物理研究所）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理前沿研究所）；Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）
We present new constraints on the dark matter-induced annual modulation signal using 1.7 years, of COSINE-100 data with a total exposure of 97.7 kg$\cdot$years. The COSINE-100 experiment, consisting of 106 kg of NaI(Tl) target material, is designed to carry out a model-independent test of DAMA/LIBRA's claim of WIMP discovery by searching for the same annual modulation signal using the same NaI(Tl) target. The crystal data show a 2.7 cpd/kg/keV background rate on average in the 2--6 keV energy region of interest. Using a $χ$-squared minimization method we observe best fit values for modulation …
In order to test the capabilities of Barium Fluoride (BaF2) Crystal for dark matter direct detection, nuclear recoils are studied with mono-energetic neutron beam. The energy spectra of nuclear recoils, quenching factors for elastic scattering neutrons and discrimination capability between neutron inelastic scattering events and γ events are obtained for various recoil energies of the F content in BaF2.
DAMA/LIBRA-阶段1和之前的DAMA/NaI数据（累积暴露量为1.33吨$\times$/年，对应于14个年度周期）提供了9.3 $σ$ C. L的证据。利用高放纯NaI（Tl）靶，在已开发的与模型无关的暗物质年调制特征的基础上，对星系晕中是否存在暗物质粒子进行了研究。结果和比较将很快得到解决，以及目前正在运行的DAMA/LIBRA-phase 2的前景。最后，在本研讨会的讨论部分中提出的一些论点在附录中提到。
We identify a largely model-independent signature of dark matter interactions with nucleons and electrons. Dark matter in the local galactic halo, gravitationally accelerated to over half the speed of light, scatters against and deposits kinetic energy into neutron stars, heating them to infrared blackbody temperatures. The resulting radiation could potentially be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope, or the European Extremely Large Telescope. This mechanism also produces optical emission from neutron stars in the galactic bulge, and X-ray emission near the ga…
If dark matter has a sizable scattering cross section with nucleons, it can efficiently be captured by a neutron star. Its energy is then transferred to the neutron star as heat through the scattering and annihilation inside the star. This heating effect may be detectable via dedicated temperature observations of nearby old pulsars, providing an alternative method for dark matter searches. In this paper, we show that for electroweak multiplet dark matter this search strategy can probe the parameter region which is out of reach of future dark matter direct detection experiments. To see this sys…
The production of radioactive isotopes by interactions of cosmic-ray particles with sodium iodide (NaI) crystals can produce radioactive backgrounds in detectors used to search for rare events. Through controlled irradiation of NaI crystals with a neutron beam that matches the cosmic-ray neutron spectrum, followed by direct counting and fitting the resulting spectrum across a broad range of energies, we determined the integrated production rate of several long-lived radioisotopes. The measurements were then extrapolated to determine the sea-level cosmogenic neutron activation rate, including t…
We add to the Standard Model a new fermion $χ$ with minimal baryon number 1/3. Neutron decay $n \to χχχ$ into non-relativistic $χ$ can account for the neutron decay anomaly, compatibly with bounds from neutron stars. $χ$ can be Dark Matter, and its cosmological abundance can be generated by freeze-in dominated at $T \sim m_n$. The associated processes $n \to χχχγ$, hydrogen decay ${\rm H}\to χχχν(γ)$ and DM-induced neutron disappearance $\barχn \to χχ(γ)$ have rates below experimental bounds and can be of interest for future experiments.
Scattering interactions between dark matter and Standard Model states mediated by pseudoscalars are generically challenging to uncover at direct detection experiments due to rates suppressed by powers of the local dark matter velocity v ~ 0.001 c. However, they may be observed in the dark matter-induced heating of neutron stars, whose steep gravitational potentials prevent such suppression by accelerating infalling particles to semi-relativistic speeds. We investigate this phenomenon in the context of two specific, self-consistent scenarios for pseudoscalars coupled to dark matter, and compare…
Discrepancies from in-beam and in-bottle type experiments measuring the neutron lifetime are on the 4$σ$ standard deviation level. In a recent publication Fornal and Grinstein proposed that the puzzle could be solved if the neutron would decay on the one percent level via a dark decay mode, one possible branch being $n \rightarrow χ+ e^+ e^-$. With data from the \perkeoII experiment we set limits on the branching fraction and exclude a one percent contribution for $95\,\%$ of the allowed mass range for the dark matter particle.
An old neutron star (NS) may capture halo dark matter (DM) and get heated up by the deposited kinetic energy, thus behaving like a thermal DM detector with sensitivity to a wide range of DM masses and a variety of DM-quark interactions. Near future infrared telescopes will measure NS temperatures down to a few thousand Kelvin and probe NS heating by DM capture. We focus on GeV-mass Dirac fermion DM (which is beyond the reach of current DM direct detection experiments) in scenarios in which the DM capture rate can saturate the geometric limit. For concreteness, we study (1) a model that invokes…
Neutron stars contain a significant number of stable muons due to the large chemical potential and degenerate electrons. This makes them the unique vessel to capture muonphilic dark matter, which does not interact with other astrophysical objects, including Earth and its direct-detection experiments. The infalling dark matter can heat up the neutron star both kinetically and via annihilations, which is potentially observable with future infrared telescopes. New physics models for muonphilic dark matter can easily be motivated by, and connected to, existing anomalies in the muon sector, e.g., t…
