We propose a formalism for the analysis of direct-detection dark-matter searches that covers all coherent responses for scalar and vector interactions and incorporates QCD constraints imposed by chiral symmetry, including all one- and two-body WIMP-nucleon interactions up to third order in chiral effective field theory. One of the free parameters in the WIMP-nucleus cross section corresponds to standard spin-independent searches, but in general different combinations of new-physics couplings are probed. We identify the interference with the isovector counterpart of the standard spin-independent response and two-body currents as the dominant corrections to the leading spin-independent structure factor, and discuss the general consequences for the interpretation of direct-detection experiments, including minimal extensions of the standard spin-independent analysis. Fits for all structure factors required for the scattering off xenon targets are provided based on state-of-the-art nuclear shell-model calculations.
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…
The standard interpretation of direct-detection limits on dark matter involves particular assumptions of the underlying WIMP-nucleus interaction, such as, in the simplest case, the choice of a Helm form factor that phenomenologically describes an isoscalar spin-independent interaction. In general, the interaction of dark matter with the target nuclei may well proceed via different mechanisms, which would lead to a different shape of the corresponding nuclear structure factors as a function of the momentum transfer $q$. We study to what extent different WIMP-nucleus responses can be differentia…
In this paper, we revisit the expressions for the (double) differential event rates for elastic WIMP-nucleus scattering and discuss some unusual thoughts on (the incompleteness of) the uses of these expressions in (directional) direct Dark Matter detection physics. Several not-frequently mentioned (but important) issues will be argued and demonstrated in detail.
We introduce WimPyDD, a modular, object-oriented and customisable Python code that accurately predicts the expected WIMP-nucleus scattering rates in WIMP direct-detection experiments including the response of the detector. WimPyDD utilises the framework of Galilean-invariant non-relativistic effective theory, allowing to handle an arbitrary number of effective operators, and can perform the calculation of the excepted rate in virtually any scenario, including inelastic scattering, WIMPs with an arbitrary spin, and a generic velocity distribution in the Galactic halo. The power and flexibility …
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…
Following our earlier work on the 3-dimensional effective velocity distribution of Galactic WIMPs (not only impinging on our detectors but also) scattering off target nuclei, in this paper, we demonstrate the normal and a "reverse" annual modulations of elastic WIMP-nucleus scattering signals, which could be observed in direct Dark Matter detection experiments. Our simulations show that, once the WIMP mass is as light as only a few tens GeV, the event number and the accumulated recoil energy of WIMP-induced scattering events off both of light and heavy target nuclei would indeed be maximal (mi…
Guided by the non-relativistic effective field theory of interactions between Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) of spin 1/2 and nuclei we study direct detection exclusion plots for an example of non-standard spin-dependent interaction and compare it to the standard one. We analyze an extensive list of 15 existing experiments including the effects of momentum dependence and isospin violation. In our analysis, we fixed the dark matter velocity distribution to a Maxwellian.
In this paper, as a supplementary of our study on the angular distribution of the recoil flux of WIMP-scattered target nuclei and on that of the WIMP effective scattering velocity distribution, we investigate the scattering probability distribution of the WIMP incident velocity versus the nuclear recoil angle in narrow recoil energy windows for different WIMP masses and target nuclei. Our simulation results show that, not only the velocity distribution of incident halo WIMPs, but also a factor of the recoil angle could affect the scattering probability distribution of the available incident ve…
It has been argued that the leading scalar-isoscalar WIMP-nucleus interactions receive parametrically enhanced contributions in the context of nuclear effective field theories. These contributions arise from meson-exchange currents (MECs) and potentially modify the impulse approximation estimates of these interactions by 10--60%. We point out that these MECs also contribute to the quark mass dependence of nuclear binding energies, that is, nuclear σ-terms. In this work, we use recent lattice QCD calculations of the binding energies of the deuteron, He-3 and He-4 at pion masses near 500 MeV and…
In this paper, as the first part of the third step of our study on developing data analysis procedures for using 3-dimensional information offered by directional direct Dark Matter detection experiments in the future, we present our double-Monte Carlo "scattering-by-scattering" simulation of the 3-dimensional elastic WIMP-nucleus scattering process, which can provide 3-D velocity information (the magnitude, the direction, and the incoming/scattering time) of each incident halo WIMP as well as the recoil direction and the recoil energy of the scattered target nucleus in different celestial coor…
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…
Guided by non-relativistic Effective Field Theory (EFT) we classify the most general spin-dependent interactions between a fermionic Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) and nuclei, and within this class of models we discuss the viability of an interpretation of the DAMA modulation result in terms of a signal from WIMP elastic scatterings using a halo-independent approach. We find that, although several relativistic EFT's can lead to a spin-dependent cross section, in some cases with an explicit, non-negligible dependence on the WIMP incoming velocity, three main scenarios can be singled…
Recent work, using an effective field theory framework, has shown the number of possible couplings between nucleons and the dark-matter-candidate Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) is larger than previously thought. Inspired by an existing Mathematica script that computes the target response, we have developed a fast, modern Fortran code, including optional OpenMP parallelization, along with a user-friendly Python wrapper, to swiftly and efficiently explore many scenarios, with output aligned with practices of current dark matter searches. A library of most of the important target nu…
Reconstructing Dark Matter Mass and Discriminating Standard and Non-Standard WIMP-Nucleus Interactions with Paleo-Detectors
The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学）；KTH Royal Institute of Technology（皇家理工学院）；University of North Florida（北佛罗里达大学）；Jožef Stefan Institute（约瑟夫斯蒂芬研究所）
Assuming for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) a Maxwellian velocity distribution in the Galaxy we explore in a systematic way the relative sensitivity of an extensive set of existing and projected Dark Matter (DM) direct detection experiments to each of the 14 couplings that parameterize the most general non-relativistic (NR) effective Hamiltonian allowed by Galilean invariance for a contact interaction driving the elastic scattering off nuclei of WIMPs of spin 1/2. We perform our analysis in terms of two free parameters: the WIMP mass $m_χ$ and the ratio between the WIMP-neutron a…
We perform state-of-the-art large-scale shell-model calculations of the structure factors for elastic spin-dependent WIMP scattering off 129,131Xe, 127I, 73Ge, 19F, 23Na, 27Al, and 29Si. This comprehensive survey covers the non-zero-spin nuclei relevant to direct dark matter detection. We include a pedagogical presentation of the formalism necessary to describe elastic and inelastic WIMP-nucleus scattering. The valence spaces and nuclear interactions employed have been previously used in nuclear structure calculations for these mass regions and yield a good spectroscopic description of these i…
The direct detection of dark matter constituents, in particular the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), is considered central to particle physics and cosmology. In this paper we study transitions to the excited states, possible in some nuclei, which have sufficiently low lying excited states. Examples considered previously were the first excited states of $^{127}$I and $^{129}$Xe and $^{83}$Kr. Here we examine $^{125}$Te, which offers some advantages and is currently being considered as a target.In all these cases the extra signature of the gamma rays following the de-excitation of t…
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 …
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. We develop a model-independent method for determining the mass $m_χ$ 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, $m_χ\sim 50$ GeV could in principle be dete…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) may constitute most of the matter in the Universe. The ability to detect the directionality of recoil nuclei will considerably facilitate detection of WIMPs. In this paper we propose a novel type of dark matter detector: detectors made of DNA or RNA could provide nanometer resolution for tracking, an energy threshold of 0.5 keV, and can operate at room temperature. When a WIMP from the Galactic Halo elastically scatters off of a nucleus in the detector, the recoiling nucleus then traverses hundreds of strings of single stranded nucleic acids (ssNA) …
We present first results on the scalar WIMP-pion coupling from 1 t$\times$yr of exposure with the XENON1T experiment. This interaction is generated when the WIMP couples to a virtual pion exchanged between the nucleons in a nucleus. In contrast to most non-relativistic operators, these pion-exchange currents can be coherently enhanced by the total number of nucleons, and therefore may dominate in scenarios where spin-independent WIMP-nucleon interactions are suppressed. Moreover, for natural values of the couplings, they dominate over the spin-dependent channel due to their coherence in the nu…
Possible hints for WIMP dark matter with mass around 10 GeV coming from the DAMA, CoGeNT, and maybe also CRESST experiments are presented, and confronted with constraints from CDMS and XENON data. Focusing on spin-independent (SI) WIMP--nucleus interactions, I elaborate on the difficulties to make the hints consistent with each other and to evade the constraints, mentioning energy scale uncertainties, quenching and light-yield factors, as well as uncertainties on halo properties. In the present situation it seems hard to reconcile all data within the SI framework, which suggests that if the ex…
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.
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%.
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.
A low pressure time projection chamber for the detection of WIMPs is discussed. Discrimination against Compton electron background in such a device should be very good, and directional information about the recoil atoms would be obtainable. If a full 3-D reconstruction of the recoil tracks can be achieved, Monte Carlo studies indicate that a WIMP signal could be identified with high confidence from as few as 30 detected WIMP-nucleus scattering events.
The event rates for WIMP-nucleus and neutrino-nucleus scattering processes, expected to be detected in ton-scale rare-event detectors, are investigated. We focus on nuclear isotopes that correspond to the target nuclei of current and future experiments looking for WIMP- and neutrino-nucleus events. The nuclear structure calculations, performed in the context of the deformed shell model, are based on Hartree-Fock intrinsic states with angular momentum projection and band mixing for both the elastic and the inelastic channels. Our predictions in the high-recoil-energy tail show that detectable d…
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…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. Currently, the most promising method to detect WIMPs is the direct detection of the recoil energy deposited in a low-background laboratory detector due to elastic WIMP-nucleus scattering. So far the usual procedure has been to predict the event rate of direct detection of WIMPs based on some model(s) of the Galactic halo from cosmology and of WIMPs from elementary particle physics. The aim of this work is to invert this process. In this thesis I present methods which allow to reconstruct (the moment…
In this article, we focus on a new scalar $ϕ$ mediated scalar/vectorial WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles) with $ϕ$'s mass slightly below the WIMP mass. To explain the Galactic center 1 - 3 GeV gamma-ray excess, here we consider the case that a WIMP pair predominantly annihilates into an on-shell $ϕϕ$ pair with $ϕ$ mainly decaying to $τ\barτ$. The masses of WIMPs are in a range about 14 - 22 GeV, and the annihilations of WIMPs are phase space suppressed today. In this annihilation scheme, the couplings of the $ϕ$ - standard model (SM) particles are almost arbitrary small, and the WIM…
We investigate the interactions of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with nuclei in the human body. We are motivated by the fact that WIMPs are excellent candidates for the dark matter in the Universe. Our estimates use a 70 kg human and a variety of WIMP masses and cross-sections. The contributions from individual elements in the body are presented and it is found that the dominant contribution is from scattering off of oxygen (hydrogen) nuclei for the spin-independent (spin-dependent) interactions. For the case of 60 GeV WIMPs, we find that, of the billions of WIMPs passing throug…
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…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for Dark Matter. We developed a model-independent method for determining the WIMP mass 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. It requires however positive signals from at least two detectors with different target nuclei. At the first phase of this work we found a systematic deviation of the reconstructed WIMP…
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.
The community's reliance on simplified descriptions of WIMP-nucleus interactions reflects the absence of analysis tools that integrate general theories of dark matter with standard treatments of nuclear response functions. To bridge this gap, we have constructed a public-domain Mathematica package for WIMP analyses based on our effective theory formulation. Script inputs are 1) the coefficients of the effective theory, through which one can characterize the low-energy consequences of arbitrary ultraviolet theories of WIMP interactions; and 2) one-body density matrices for commonly used targets…
Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are one of the leading candidates for dark matter. Currently, the most promising method to detect many different WIMP candidates is the direct detection of the recoil energy deposited in a low-background laboratory detector due to elastic WIMP-nucleus scattering. So far the usual procedure has been to predict the event rate of direct detection of WIMPs based on some model(s) of the galactic halo. The aim of our work is to invert this process. That is, we study what future direct detection experiment can teach us about the WIMP halo. As the first ste…
Direct detection experiments aim at the detection of dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by searching for signals from elastic dark matter nucleus scattering. Additionally, inelastic scattering in which the nucleus is excited is expected from nuclear physics and provides an additional detectable signal. In the context of a low-energy effective field theory we investigate the experimental reach to these inelastic transitions for xenon-based detectors employing a dual-phase time projection chamber. We find that once a dark matter signal is established, inelast…
We perform a systematic study of the electric and magnetic dipole moments of dark matter (DM) that are induced at the one-loop level when DM experiences four-fermion interactions with Standard Model (SM) charged fermions. Related to their loop nature these moments can largely depend on the UV completion at the origin of the four-fermion operators. We illustrate this property by considering explicitly two simple ways to generate these operators, from $t$- or $s$-channel tree-level exchange. Fixing the strength of these interactions from the DM relic density constraint, we obtain in particular a…
The search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by direct detection faces an encroaching background due to coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. For a given WIMP mass the cross section at which neutrinos constitute a dominant background is dependent on the uncertainty on the flux of each neutrino source from either the Sun, supernovae or atmospheric cosmic ray collisions. However there are also considerable uncertainties with regard to the astrophysical ingredients to the predicted WIMP signal. Uncertainties in the velocity of the Sun with respect to the Milky Way dark matter halo,…
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are among the best-motivated dark matter candidates. In light of no conclusive detection signal yet despite an extensive search program that combines, often in a complementary way, direct, indirect, and collider probes, we find it timely to give a broad overview of the WIMP paradigm. In particular, we review here the theoretical foundations of the WIMP paradigm, discuss status and prospects of various detection strategies, and explore future experimental challenges and opportunities.
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…
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…
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 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…
We examine whether the annual modulation found by the DAMA dark matter experiment can be explained by Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), in light of new null results from other experiments. CDMS II has already ruled out most WIMP-nucleus spin-independent couplings as an explanation for DAMA data. Hence we here focus on spin-dependent (axial vector; SD) couplings of WIMPs to nuclei. We expand upon previous work by (i) considering the general case of coupling to both protons and neutrons and (ii) incorporating bounds from all existing experiments. We note the surprising fact that CMDS…
The energy spectrum of nuclear recoils in Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) direct detection experiments depends on the underlying WIMP mass. We study how the accuracy with which the WIMP mass could be determined by a single direct detection experiment depends on the detector configuration and the WIMP properties. We investigate the effects of varying the underlying WIMP mass and cross-section, the detector target nucleus, exposure, energy threshold and maximum energy, the local circular speed and the background event rate and spectrum. The number of events observed is directly propor…
We consider both velocity-dependent and velocity-independent contributions to spin-dependent (SD) and spin-independent (SI) nuclear scattering (including one-loop corrections) of WIMPless dark matter, in the case where the dark matter candidate is a Majorana fermion. We find that spin-independent scattering arises only from the mixing of exotic squarks, or from velocity-dependent terms. Nevertheless (and contrary to the case of MSSM neutralino WIMPs), we find a class of models which cannot be detected through SI scattering, but can be detected at IceCube/DeepCore through SD scattering. We stud…
In the evaluation of weak interacting massive particles (WIMPs) detection rates, the WIMP-nucleus cross section is commonly described by using form factors extracted from charge distributions. In this work, we use different proton and neutron distributions taken from Hartree-Fock calculations. We study the effects of this choice on the total detection rates for six nuclei with different neutron excess, and taken from different regions of the nuclear chart. The use of different distributions for protons and neutrons becomes more important if isospin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions are consi…
The search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by direct detection faces an encroaching background due to coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering. As the sensitivity of these experiments improves, the question of how to best distinguish a dark matter signal from neutrinos will become increasingly important. A proposed method of overcoming this so-called 'neutrino floor' is to utilize the directional signature that both neutrino and dark matter induced recoils possess. We show that directional experiments can indeed probe WIMP-nucleon cross-sections below the neutrino floor with littl…
If the neutral component of weak-scale dark matter is accompanied by a charged excitation separated by a mass gap of less than ~20 MeV, WIMPs can form stable bound states with nuclei. We show that the recent progress in experiments searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay sets the first direct constraint on the exoergic reaction of WIMP-nucleus bound state formation. We calculate the rate for such process in representative models and show that the double-beta decay experiments provide unique sensitivity to a large fraction of parameter space of the WIMP doublet model, complementary to cons…
The Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are among the main candidates for the relic dark matter (DM). The idea of the direct DM detection relies on elastic in-dependent (SD) and spin-independent (SI) interaction of WIMPs with target nuclei. The importance of the SD WIMP-nucleus interaction for reliable DM detection is argued. The absolute lower bound for the detection rate can naturally be due to SD interaction. An experiment aimed at detecting DM with sensitivity higher than 10^{-5} event/day/kg should have a non-zero-spin target.
