2017/10/30 by Ciaran A. J. O’Hare, O'Hare, Ciaran A. J.
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Scientific Research and Discoveries
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1710.10923
openalex publication_date 2017/10/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Predicting signals in direct dark matter (DM) detection experiments requires an understanding of the astrophysical structure of the local halo. Any uncertainty in this understanding will feed directly into all experimental results. However our terrestrial experiments are in a position to study this same astrophysical dependence, and in fact represent our only probe of the local halo on sub-milliparsec scales. This is best achieved in the case of WIMP dark matter if directionally sensitive experiments are feasible, but requires novel parameterizations of the velocity distribution to make model independent claims. For axions the prospects are much greater, haloscopes would be able to make better measurements of the local DM distribution than astrometric probes.