We investigate the diurnal modulation of the event rate for dark matter scattering on solid targets arising from the directionally dependent defect creation threshold energy. In particular, we quantify how this effect would help in separating dark matter signal from the neutrino background. We perform a benchmark analysis for a germanium detector and compute how the reach of the experiment is affected by including the timing information of the scattering events. We observe that for light dark matter just above the detection threshold the magnitude of the annual modulation is enhanced. In this mass range using either the annual or diurnal modulation information provides a similar gain in the reach of the experiment, while the additional reach from using both effects remains modest. Furthermore, we demonstrate that if the background contains a feature exhibiting an annual modulation similar to the one observed by DAMA experiment, the diurnal modulation provides for an additional handle to separate dark matter signal from the background.
In this article, I present our (Monte Carlo) simulation results of the angular distribution of the 3-dimensional WIMP velocity, in particular, a possible "annual" modulation and the diurnal modulation proposed in literature, for different underground laboratories.
We point out a new type of diurnal effect for the cosmic ray boosted dark matter (DM). The DM-nucleon interactions not only allow the direct detection of DM with nuclear recoils, but also allow cosmic rays to scatter with and boost the nonrelativistic DM to higher energies. If the DM-nuclei scattering cross sections are sufficiently large, the DM flux is attenuated as it propagates through the Earth, leading to a strong diurnal modulation. This diurnal modulation provides another prominent signature for the direct detection of boosted sub-GeV DM, in addition to signals with higher recoil energ…
We calculate the diurnal and annual modulation of the signals in axion and WIMP dark matter detectors on Earth caused by a cold flow of dark matter in the Solar neighborhood. The effects of the Sun's and the Earth's gravity, and of the orbital and rotational motions of the Earth are included. A cold flow on Earth produces a peak in the spectrum of microwave photons in cavity detectors of dark matter axions, and a plateau in the nuclear recoil energy spectrum in WIMP detectors. Formulas are given for the positions and heights of these peaks and plateaux as a function of time in the course of da…
SENSEI: A Search for Diurnal Modulation in sub-GeV Dark Matter Scattering
University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory（劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；Institut für Hochenergiephysik der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften（奥地利科学院高能物理研究所）；Technische Universität Wien（维也纳工业大学）；Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México（墨西哥国立自治大学）；Tel-Aviv University（特拉维夫大学）；University of Oregon（俄勒冈大学）；Stony Brook University（石溪大学）
We show that models of strongly interacting (SIMP) dark matter built to reproduce the DAMA signal actually cannot account for its time dependence. We discuss the constraints on this type of models coming from direct detection experiments and study the propagation of thermalised dark matter particles in the ground for the allowed values of the parameters. We consider a simple 1D diffusion and a more detailed 3D diffusion. In both cases the predicted signal has either the wrong phase of the annual modulation or a much larger amplitude of the diurnal modulation.
Conventional dark matter direct detection experiments set stringent constraints on dark matter by looking for elastic scattering events between dark matter particles and nuclei in underground detectors. However these constraints weaken significantly in the sub-GeV mass region, simply because light dark matter does not have enough energy to trigger detectors regardless of the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section. Even if future experiments lower their energy thresholds, they will still be blind to parameter space where dark matter particles interact with nuclei strongly enough that they…
The solar modulation effect of Galactic cosmic rays is a time-dependent phenomenon that is caused by the transport of these particles through the magnetized plasma of the heliosphere. Using a data-driven model of cosmic-ray transport in the heliosphere, in combination with a large collection of data, we report the evidence for a eight-month time lag between observations of solar activity and measurements of cosmic-ray fluxes in space. As we will discuss, this result enables us to forecast the cosmic ray flux at Earth well in advance by monitoring solar activity. We also compare our predictions…
Our basic theoretical understanding of the sources of cosmic rays and their propagation through the interstellar medium is hindered by the Sun, that through the solar wind affects the observed cosmic-ray spectra. This effect is known as solar modulation. Recently released cosmic-ray observations from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) and publicly available measurements of the solar wind properties from the Advanced Composition Explorer and the Wilcox observatory allow us to test the analytical modeling of the time-, charge- and rigidity-dependence of solar modulation. We rely on associa…
Our ability to identify the sources of cosmic rays and understand how these particles propagate through the interstellar medium is hindered by the combined effects of the solar wind and its embedded magnetic field, collectively known as solar modulation. In this paper, we build upon our previous work to model and constrain the effects of solar modulation on the cosmic-ray spectrum, using data from AMS-02 and BESS Polar II collected between 2007 and 2012, during which the heliospheric magnetic field was in a state of negative polarity. Our model uses measurements of the heliospheric magnetic fi…
In this paper, as a preparation of developing data analysis procedures for using 3-dimensional information offered by directional Dark Matter (DM) detection experiments, we study the patterns of the angular distribution of the Monte Carlo-generated 3-D velocity of halo Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) as well as apply the Bayesian fitting technique to reconstruct the radial distribution of the 3-D WIMP velocity. Besides the diurnal modulation of the angular WIMP velocity distribution, the so-called "directionality" of DM signals proposed in literature, we will also demonstrate poss…
Neutron monitors and muon detectors for solar modulation studies: Interstellar flux, yield function, and assessment of critical parameters in count rate calculations
A key goal of heliophysics is to understand how cosmic rays propagate in the solar system's complex, dynamic environment. One observable is solar modulation, i.e., how the flux and spectrum of cosmic rays changes as they propagate inward. We construct an improved force-field model, taking advantage of new measurements of magnetic power spectral density by Parker Solar Probe to predict solar modulation within the Earth's orbit. We find that modulation of cosmic rays between the Earth and Sun is modest, at least at solar minimum and in the ecliptic plane. Our results agree much better with the l…
