Search results for "Weakly interacting massive particles"
showing 7 items of 37 documents
Self-interacting dark matter and cosmology of a light scalar mediator
2016
We consider a fermionic dark matter candidate interacting via a scalar mediator coupled with the Standard Model through a Higgs portal. We consider a general setting including both scalar and pseudoscalar interactions between the scalar and fermion, and illustrate the relevant features for dark matter abundance, direct search limits and collider constraints. The case where dark matter has a self-interaction strength $⟨{\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{V}⟩/{m}_{\ensuremath{\psi}}\ensuremath{\sim}0.1--1\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}/\mathrm{g}$ is strongly constrained, in particular by the big bang nucleosynthesis. We show that these constraints can be alleviated by introducing a new light sterile ne…
Dark matter searches using superheated liquids
2016
Direct detection of dark matter is one of the most important topics in modern physics. It is estimated that 22% of universe matter is composed by dark matter in front of 0.4% of ordinary matter like stars, galaxies planets and all kind of known astrophysical objects. Several kinds of experiments are nowadays involved in detection of one of the more accepted particle candidates to be dark matter: WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles). These detectors, using several kinds of techniques: Cryogenic semiconductors, scintillation materials like I Na or noble gas chambers among others, are reporting very interesting but inconclusive results. In this paper a review of detectors that are usin…
Possibility of a dark matter interpretation for the excess in isotropic radio emission reported by ARCADE.
2011
The ARCADE 2 Collaboration has recently measured an isotropic radio emission which is significantly brighter than the expected contributions from known extra-galactic sources. The simplest explanation of such excess involves a ``new'' population of unresolved sources which become the most numerous at very low (observationally unreached) brightness. We investigate this scenario in terms of synchrotron radiation induced by weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) annihilations or decays in extra-galactic halos. Intriguingly, for light-mass WIMPs with a thermal annihilation cross section, the level of expected radio emission matches the ARCADE observations.
Effective field theory search for high-energy nuclear recoils using the XENON100 dark matter detector
2017
International audience; We report on weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) search results in the XENON100 detector using a nonrelativistic effective field theory approach. The data from science run II (34 kg×224.6 live days) were reanalyzed, with an increased recoil energy interval compared to previous analyses, ranging from (6.6–240) keVnr. The data are found to be compatible with the background-only hypothesis. We present 90% confidence level exclusion limits on the coupling constants of WIMP-nucleon effective operators using a binned profile likelihood method. We also consider the case of inelastic WIMP scattering, where incident WIMPs may up-scatter to a higher mass state, and …
Projected WIMP sensitivity of the XENONnT dark matter experiment
2020
XENONnT is a dark matter direct detection experiment, utilizing 5.9 t of instrumented liquid xenon, located at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. In this work, we predict the experimental background and project the sensitivity of XENONnT to the detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The expected average differential background rate in the energy region of interest, corresponding to (1, 13) keV and (4, 50) keV for electronic and nuclear recoils, amounts to 12.3 ± 0.6 (keV t y)-1 and (2.2± 0.5)× 10−3 (keV t y)-1, respectively, in a 4 t fiducial mass. We compute unified confidence intervals using the profile construction method, in order to ensure proper coverage…
Search for inelastic scattering of WIMP dark matter in XENON1T
2021
We report the results of a search for the inelastic scattering of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Scattering off $^{129}$Xe is the most sensitive probe of inelastic WIMP interactions, with a signature of a 39.6 keV de-excitation photon detected simultaneously with the nuclear recoil. Using an exposure of 0.89 tonne-years, we find no evidence of inelastic WIMP scattering with a significance of more than 2$\sigma$. A profile-likelihood ratio analysis is used to set upper limits on the cross-section of WIMP-nucleus interactions. We exclude new parameter space for WIMPs heavier than 100 GeV/c${}^2$, with the strongest upper limit of $3.3 \time…
Search for Light Dark Matter Interactions Enhanced by the Migdal Effect or Bremsstrahlung in XENON1T.
2019
Direct dark matter detection experiments based on a liquid xenon target are leading the search for dark matter particles with masses above ∼5 GeV/c2, but have limited sensitivity to lighter masses because of the small momentum transfer in dark matter-nucleus elastic scattering. However, there is an irreducible contribution from inelastic processes accompanying the elastic scattering, which leads to the excitation and ionization of the recoiling atom (the Migdal effect) or the emission of a bremsstrahlung photon. In this Letter, we report on a probe of low-mass dark matter with masses down to about 85 MeV/c2 by looking for electronic recoils induced by the Migdal effect and bremsstrahlung us…