Superconducting detectors have been proposed as outstanding targets for the direct detection of light dark matter scattering at masses as low as a keV. We study the prospects for directional detection of dark matter in isotropic superconducting targets from the angular distribution of excitations produced in the material. We find that dark matter scattering produces initial excitations with an anisotropic distribution, and further show that this directional information can be preserved as the initial excitations relax. Our results demonstrate that directional detection is possible for a wide range of dark matter masses, and pave the way for light dark matter discovery with bulk superconducting targets.
Although the velocity distribution of dark matter is assumed to be generally isotropic, some studies have found that $\sim\hspace{-0.1cm}25$\% of the distribution can have anisotropic components. As the directional detection of dark matter is sensitive to both the recoil energy and direction of nuclear recoil, directional information can prove useful in measuring the distribution of dark matter. Using a Monte Carlo simulation based on the modeled directional detection of dark matter, we analyze the differences between isotropic and anisotropic distributions and show that the isotropic case can…
Velocity distribution of dark matter is supposed to be isotropic Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution in most cases, however, other distribution models including anisotropic one are suggested by simulations. Directional direct detection of dark matter is expected to be a hopeful way to discriminate isotropic distribution from anisotropic one. We investigate the possibility to obtain the anisotropy and WIMP mass by Monte-Carlo simulation supposing the directional detector.
Velocity distribution of dark matter is assumed to be isotropic in most cases, however, anisotropy is suggested in some simulations. Directional direct detection of dark matter is a hopeful way to discriminate the anisotropy of dark matter velocity distribution. We simulate the dark matter and target scattering in the directional direct detection, and investigate conditions required to discriminate the anisotropy. If dark matter mass is known, $O(10^3)-O(10^4)$ events are required for the discrimination if the dark matter mass is known by other experiments. We also study the case that the dark…
Directional detection of dark matter has sensitivity for both recoil energy and direction of nuclear recoil. It opens the way to measure local velocity distribution of dark matter. In this paper, we study possibility to discriminate isotropic distribution and anisotropic one suggested by a N-body simulation with directional detector. Numerical simulation is performed for two cases according to the detectors, one corresponds to angular histogram and the other is energy-angular distribution of the signals. We reveal that the anisotropy of velocity distribution can be discriminated at 90% C.L. wi…
Directional detection of dark matter is the next generation experiment, which is expected to have better back ground rejection efficiency than conventional direct search. Another intriguing possibility of the experiment by means of the directional information is measurement the velocity distribution of dark matter. Especially, it will be potent to figure out whether the velocity distribution is anisotropic. Supposing three distribution models, we discuss the possibility in one of the directional dark matter searches, nuclear emulsion detector.
We extend the formalism of dark matter directional detection to arbitrary one-body dark matter-nucleon interactions. The new theoretical framework generalizes the one currently used, which is based on 2 types of dark matter-nucleon interaction only. It includes 14 dark matter-nucleon interaction operators, 8 isotope-dependent nuclear response functions, and the Radon transform of the first 2 moments of the dark matter velocity distribution. We calculate the recoil energy spectra at dark matter directional detectors made of CF$_4$, CS$_2$ and $^{3}$He for the 14 dark matter-nucleon interactions…
Directional detection is an important way to detect dark matter. An input to these experiments is the dark matter velocity distribution. Recent hydrodynamical simulations have shown that the dark matter velocity distribution differs substantially from the Standard Halo Model. We study the impact of some of these updated velocity distribution in dark matter directional detection experiments. We calculate the ratio of events required to confirm the forward-backward asymmetry and the existence of the ring of maximum recoil rate using different dark matter velocity distributions for $^{19}$F and X…
It is an intriguing possibility that the cold dark matter of the Universe may consist of very light and very weakly interacting particles such as axion(-like particles) and hidden photons. This opens up (but also requires) new techniques for direct detection. One possibility is to use reflecting surfaces to facilitate the conversion of dark matter into photons, which can be concentrated in a detector with a suitable geometry. In this note we show that this technique also allows for directional detection and inference of the full vectorial velocity spectrum of the dark matter particles. We also…
The magnetic inelastic dark matter (MiDM) model, in which dark matter inelastically scatters off nuclei through a magnetic dipole interaction, has previously been shown to reconcile the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal with null results from other experiments. In this work, we explore the unique directional detection signature of MiDM. After the dark matter scatters into its excited state, it decays with a lifetime of order 1 microsecond and emits a photon with energy ~100 keV. Both the nuclear recoil and the corresponding emitted photon can be detected by studying delayed coincidence event…
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.
Dark matter consisting of very light and very weakly interacting particles such as axions, axion-like particles and hidden photons could be detected using reflective surfaces. On such reflectors some of the dark matter particles are converted into photons and, given a suitable geometry, concentrated on the detector. This technique offers sensitivity to the direction of the velocity of the dark matter particles. In this note we investigate how far spherical mirrors can concentrate the generated photons and what this implies for the resolution in directional detection as well as the sensitivity …
A new solution to the problem of dark matter directional detection might come from the use of large arrays of aligned carbon nanotubes. We calculate the expected rate of carbon ions channeled in single-wall nanotubes once extracted by the scattering with a massive dark matter particle. Depending on its initial kinematic conditions, the ejected Carbon ion may be channeled in the nanotube array or stop in the bulk. The orientation of the array with respect to the direction of motion of the Sun has an appreciable effect on the channeling probability. This provides the required anisotropic respons…
We consider the direct detection of dark matter (DM) with polar materials, where single production of optical or acoustic phonons gives excellent reach to scattering of sub-MeV DM for both scalar and vector mediators. Using Density Functional Theory (DFT), we calculate the material-specific matrix elements, focusing on GaAs and sapphire, and show that DM scattering in an anisotropic crystal such as sapphire features a strong directional dependence. For example, for a DM candidate with mass 40 keV and relic abundance set by freeze-in, the daily modulation in the interaction rate can be establis…
We propose two-dimensional materials as targets for direct detection of dark matter. Using graphene as an example, we focus on the case where dark matter scattering deposits sufficient energy on a valence-band electron to eject it from the target. We show that the sensitivity of graphene to dark matter of MeV to GeV mass can be comparable, for similar exposure and background levels, to that of semiconductor targets such as silicon and germanium. Moreover, a two-dimensional target is an excellent directional detector, as the ejected electron retains information about the angular dependence of t…
Inelastic dark matter reconciles the DAMA anomaly with other null direct detection experiments and points to a non-minimal structure in the dark matter sector. In addition to the dominant inelastic interaction, dark matter scattering may have a subdominant elastic component. If these elastic interactions are suppressed at low momentum transfer, they will have similar nuclear recoil spectra to inelastic scattering events. While upcoming direct detection experiments will see strong signals from such models, they may not be able to unambiguously determine the presence of the subdominant elastic s…
Directional dark matter detection attempts to measure the direction of motion of nuclei recoiling after having interacted with dark matter particles in the halo of our Galaxy. Due to Earth's motion with respect to the Galaxy, the dark matter flux is concentrated around a preferential direction. An anisotropy in the recoil direction rate is expected as an unmistakable signature of dark matter. The average nuclear recoil direction is expected to coincide with the average direction of dark matter particles arriving to Earth. Here we point out that for a particular type of dark matter, inelastic e…
Directional detection of WIMPs, in which the energies and directions of the recoiling nuclei are measured, currently presents the only prospect for probing the local velocity distribution of Galactic dark matter. We investigate the extent to which future directional detectors would be capable of probing dark matter substructure in the form of streams. We analyse the signal expected from a Sagittarius-like stream and also explore the full parameter space of stream speed, direction, dispersion and density. Using a combination of non-parametric directional statistics, a profile likelihood ratio t…
Direct detection of dark matter with directional sensitivity offers not only measurement of both recoil energy and direction of dark matter, but also a way to understand dark matter distribution in the Galaxy. Maxwell distribution is usually supposed as the distribution near the Earth, however, deviation from that, caused by tidal streams in the Galaxy, has been suggested. We explore the possibility of distinguishing the distribution by direct detection using nuclear emulsions.
We present the analysis of a new signature for light dark matter detection with superfluid $^4$He: the emission of three phonons. We show that, in a region of mass below the MeV, the kinematics of this process can offer a way to reconstruct the dark matter interaction vertex, while providing background rejection via coincidence requirements and directionality. We develop all the necessary technology to deal with such an observable, and compute the associated differential distributions.
Present and planned dark matter detection experiments search for WIMP-induced nuclear recoils in poorly known background conditions. In this environment, the maximum gap statistical method provides a way of setting more sensitive cross section upper limits by incorporating known signal information. We give a recipe for the numerical calculation of upper limits for planned directional dark matter detection experiments, that will measure both recoil energy and angle, based on the gaps between events in two-dimensional phase space.
Discriminating Dark Matter Origins with Directional Detection
ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, School of Physics, The University of Melbourne（墨尔本大学物理学院暗物质粒子物理卓越研究中心）；ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, School of Physics, The University of Sydney（悉尼大学物理学院暗物质粒子物理卓越研究中心）
The framework of non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT) aims to generalise the standard analysis of direct detection experiments in terms of spin-dependent (SD) and spin-independent (SI) interactions. We show that a number of NREFT operators lead to distinctive new directional signatures, such as prominent ring-like features in the directional recoil rate, even for relatively low mass WIMPs. We discuss these signatures and how they could affect the interpretation of future results from directional detectors. We demonstrate that considering a range of possible operators introduces a fa…
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…
It has been suggested that several small-scale structure anomalies in $Λ$CDM cosmology can be solved by strong self-interaction between dark matter particles. It was shown by Braaten and Hammer that the presence of a near threshold S-wave resonance can make the scattering cross section at nonrelativistic speeds come close to saturating the unitarity bound. This can result in the formation of a stable bound state of two asymmetric dark matter particles (we call the bound state as darkonium). Laha and Braaten studied the nuclear recoil energy spectrum in dark matter direct detection experiments …
If the dark matter particle has spin 0, only two types of WIMP-nucleon interaction can arise from the non-relativistic reduction of renormalisable single-mediator models for dark matter-quark interactions. Based on this crucial observation, we show that about 100 signal events at next generation directional detection experiments can be enough to enable a $2σ$ rejection of the spin 0 dark matter hypothesis in favour of alternative hypotheses where the dark matter particle has spin 1/2 or 1. In this context directional sensitivity is crucial, since anisotropy patterns in the sphere of nuclear re…
Coherent scattering of solar, atmospheric and diffuse supernovae neutrinos creates an irreducible background for direct dark matter experiments with sensitivities to WIMP-nucleon spin-independent scattering cross-sections of 10^(-46)-10^(-48) cm^2, depending on the WIMP mass. Even if one could eliminate all other backgrounds, this "neutrino floor" will limit future experiments with projected sensitivities to cross-sections as small as 10^(-48) cm^2. Direction-sensitive detectors have the potential to study dark matter beyond the neutrino bound by fitting event distributions in multiple dimensi…
We explore the ability of directional nuclear-recoil detectors to constrain the local velocity distribution of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter by performing Bayesian parameter estimation on simulated recoil-event data sets. We discuss in detail how directional information, when combined with measurements of the recoil-energy spectrum, helps break degeneracies in the velocity-distribution parameters. We also consider the possibility that velocity structures such as cold tidal streams or a dark disk may also be present in addition to the Galactic halo. Assuming a carbon-te…
We explore the stopping effect that results from interactions between dark matter and nuclei as the dark matter particles travel undergound towards the detector. Although this effect is negligible for heavy dark matter particles, there is parameter phase space where the underground interactions of the dark matter particles with the nuclei can create observable differences in the spectrum. Dark matter particles that arrive on the detector from below can have less energy from the ones arriving from above. These differences can be potentially detectable by upcoming directional detectors. This can…
Directional dark matter detectors will be able to record the recoil momentum spectrum of nuclei hit by dark matter WIMPs. We show that the recoil momentum spectrum is the Radon transform of the WIMP velocity distribution. This allows us to obtain analytic expressions for the recoil spectra of a variety of velocity distributions. We comment on the possibility of inverting the recoil momentum spectrum and obtaining the three-dimensional WIMP velocity distribution from data.
Single phonon excitations are sensitive probes of light dark matter in the keV-GeV mass window. For anisotropic target materials, the signal depends on the direction of the incoming dark matter wind and exhibits a daily modulation. We discuss in detail the various sources of anisotropy, and carry out a comparative study of 26 crystal targets, focused on sub-MeV dark matter benchmarks. We compute the modulation reach for the most promising targets, corresponding to the cross section where the daily modulation can be observed for a given exposure, which allows us to combine the strength of DM-ph…
We present some theoretical results relevant to the direct dark matter detection experiments, paying particular attention to directional experiments, i.e. experiments in which, not only the energy but the direction of the recoiling nucleus is observed. In directional experiments the detection rate depends on the angle between the line observation and the sun's direction of motion. Since, however, the direction of observation is fixed with respect the earth, while the Earth is rotating around its axis, in a directional experiment the angle between the direction of observation and the Sun's dire…
Cosmological observations indicate that most of the matter in the Universe is Dark Matter. Dark Matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) can be detected directly, via its elastic scattering off target nuclei. Most current direct detection experiments only measure the energy of the recoiling nuclei. However, directional detection experiments are sensitive to the direction of the nuclear recoil as well. Due to the Sun's motion with respect to the Galactic rest frame, the directional recoil rate has a dipole feature, peaking around the direction of the Solar motion. This…
Some of direct dark matter searches reported not only positive signals but also annual modulation of the signal event. However, the parameter spaces have been excluded by other experiments. Isospin violating dark matter solves the contradiction by supposing different coupling to proton and neutron. We study the possibility to test the favored parameter region by isospin violating dark matter model with the future detector of dark matter using the nuclear emulsion. Since the nuclear emulsion detector has directional sensitivity, the detector is expected to examine whether the annual modulations…
Hidden photon and axion-like dark matter may be detected using spherical reflective surfaces such as dish antenna setups converting some of the dark matter particles into photons and concentrating them on a detector. These setups may be used to perform directional searches measuring the dark matter momentum distribution. We briefly review the photon distribution one expects to detect with such an antenna and directional resolution in ray approximation. Furthermore we consider the regime $m_{DM} \lesssim (R_{sp}\,v_{DM})^{-1}$ where this approximation does not hold anymore due to the photon wav…
Searches for WIMP dark matter will in the near future be sensitive to solar neutrinos. Directional detection offers a method to reject solar neutrinos and improve WIMP searches, but reaching that sensitivity with existing directional detectors poses challenges. We propose a combined atomic/particle physics approach using a large-volume diamond detector. WIMP candidate events trigger a particle detector, after which spectroscopy of nitrogen vacancy centers reads out the direction of the incoming particle. We discuss the current state of technologies required to realize directional detection in …
The detection of the theoretically expected dark matter is central to particle physics and cosmology. Current fashionable supersymmetric models provide a natural dark matter candidate which is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). The theoretically obtained event rates are usually very low or even undetectable. So the experimentalists would like to exploit special signatures like the directional rates and the modulation effect. We study these signatures in the present paper focusing on a specific class of non-isothermal models involving flows of caustic rings.
Supernovae can produce vast fluxes of new particles with masses on the MeV scale, a mass scale of interest for models of light dark matter. When these new particles become diffusively trapped within the supernova, the escaping flux will emerge semirelativistic with an order-one spread in velocities. As a result, overlapping emissions from Galactic supernovae will produce an overall flux of these particles at Earth that is approximately constant in time. However, this flux is highly anisotropic and is steeply peaked towards the Galactic center. This is in contrast with the cosmological abundanc…
We investigate the capability of directional detectors to probe neutralino dark matter in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with parameters defined at the weak scale. We show that directional detectors such as the future MIMAC detector will probe spin dependent dark matter scattering on nucleons that are beyond the reach of current spin independent detectors. The complementarity between indirect searches, in particular using gamma rays from dwarf spheroidal galaxies, spin dependent and spin independent direct search techniques is em…
We study the directional effect of the expected axion dark matter signal in a resonant cavity of an axion haloscope detector, for cavity geometries not satisfying the condition that the axion de Broglie wavelength $λ_a$ is sufficiently larger than the cavity dimensions $L$ for a fully coherent conversion, i.e. $λ_a \gtrsim 2πL$. We focus on long thin cavities immersed in dipole magnets and find, for appropriately chosen cavity lengths, an O(1) modulation of the signal with the cavity orientation with respect the momentum distribution of the relic axion background predicted by the isothermal sp…
Direction sensitive direct detection of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) as dark matter would provide an unambiguous non-gravitational signature of dark matter (DM). The diurnal variation of DM signal due to earth's rotation around its own axis can be a significant signature for galactic WIMPs. Because of particular orientation of earth's axis of rotation with respect to WIMP wind direction, the apparent direction of WIMP wind as observed at a detector can alter widely over a day. In this work we calculate the directional detection rates with their daily and yearly modulations in e…
Details about the velocity distribution of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter in our galaxy may be revealed by nuclear-recoil detectors with directional sensitivity. Previous studies have assumed that the velocity distribution takes a simple functional form characterized by a small number of parameters. More recent work has shown that basis-function expansions may allow for more general parameterization; such an approach has been considered for both the one-dimensional speed and momentum distributions, and also for three-dimensional velocity distributions obeying certain eq…
We develop a formalism to describe extensions of existing axion haloscope designs to those that possess directional sensitivity to incoming dark matter axion velocities. The effects are measurable if experiments are designed to have dimensions that approach the typical coherence length for the local axion field. With directional sensitivity, axion detection experiments would have a greatly enhanced potential to probe the local dark matter velocity distribution. We develop our formalism generally, but apply it to specific experimental designs, namely resonant cavities and dielectric disk halosc…
Exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) seem to dominate in the flat Universe. Thus direct dark matter detection is central to particle physics and cosmology. Supersymmetry provides a natural dark matter candidate, the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). It is possible to obtain detectable rates, but realystically they are expected to be much lower than the present experimental goals. So one should exploit two characteristic signatures of the reaction, namely the modulation effect and the correlation with the sun's motion in directional experiments. In st…
We consider the use of directionality in the search for monoenergetic sub-GeV neutrinos arising from the decay of stopped kaons, which can be produced by dark matter annihilation in the core of the Sun. When these neutrinos undergo charged-current interactions with a nucleus at a neutrino detector, they often eject a proton which is highly peaked in the forward direction. The direction of this track can be measured at DUNE, allowing one to distinguish signal from background by comparing on-source and off-source event rates. We find that directional information can enhance the signal to backgro…
The quasiparticle propagation away from the track of a highly ionizing particle in superfluid helium at low temperatures has previously been shown to exhibit anisotropy. We discuss the mechanism responsible for this behavior and show that it occurs for nuclear scattering by dark matter for recoil energies down to a few keV, and perhaps lower. This makes it possible to extend WIMP searches with interaction cross sections that reach into the neutrino floor in a meaningful energy range.
Directional detection is a promising search strategy to discover galactic Dark Matter. Taking advantage on the rotation of the Solar system around the Galactic center through the Dark Matter halo, it allows to show a direction dependence of WIMP events. Even though the goal of directional search is to identify a WIMP positive detection, exclusion limits are still needed for very low exposure with a rather large background contamination, such as the one obtained with prototype experiments. Data of directional detectors are composed of energy and 3D track of recoiling nuclei. However, to set rob…
We investigate the velocity and recoil momentum dependence of dark matter interactions with ordinary matter. In particular we focus on the single-electron resolution semiconductor detectors, which allow experimental assessment of sub-GeV dark matter masses. We find that, within a specific mass range depending on the detector material, the dark matter interactions result in a signal characterized by daily modulation. Furthermore, we find that the detailed structure of this modulation is sensitive to the velocity and momentum dependence of dark matter interactions. We identify the optimal mass r…
An observation of the anisotropy of dark matter interactions in a direction-sensitive detector would provide decisive evidence for the discovery of galactic dark matter. Directional information would also provide a crucial input to understanding its distribution in the local Universe. Most of the existing directional dark matter detectors utilize particle tracking methods in a low-pressure gas time projection chamber. These low pressure detectors require excessively large volumes in order to be competitive in the search for physics beyond the current limit. In order to avoid these volume limit…
The detection of dark matter is central to particle physics and cosmology. Current fashionable supersymmetric models provide a dark matter candidate, the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). When combined with fairly well understood physics (quark structure of the nucleon and some nuclear structure, they yield direct event rates. The obtained rates are, however, very low. So we exploit characteristic signatures, like the modulation effect, i.e. the dependence of the rate on the earth's annual motion, and the directional rate, i.e its dependence on the direction of the recoiling nucleus, emp…
Directional dark matter signatures of the Large Magellanic Cloud
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部）；Department of Physics, University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学物理系）；Theoretical Physics Institute, University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学理论物理研究所）
The detection of the theoretically expected dark matter is central to particle physics and cosmology. Current fashionable supersymmetric models provide a natural dark matter candidate which is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). Such models combined with fairly well understood physics like the quark substructure of the nucleon and the nuclear structure (form factor and/or spin response function), permit the evaluation of the event rate for LSP-nucleus elastic scattering. The thus obtained event rates are, however, very low. So it is imperative to exploit the modulation effect, i.e. the…
Dark matter (DM) direct detection experiments which are directionally-sensitive may be the only method of probing the full velocity distribution function (VDF) of the Galactic DM halo. We present an angular basis for the DM VDF which can be used to parametrise the distribution in order to mitigate astrophysical uncertainties in future directional experiments and extract information about the DM halo. This basis consists of discretising the VDF in a series of angular bins, with the VDF being only a function of the DM speed $v$ within each bin. In contrast to other methods, such as spherical har…
