2010/03/31 by A. Gütlein, C. Ciemniak, F. von Feilitzsch +13
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2010.06.002
published as Astropart.Phys.34:90-96,2010 · accepted by Astroparticle Physics
openalex publication_date 2010/06/18 · arxiv created 2010/06/22 · arxiv updated 2010/09/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In experiments for direct dark matter searches, neutrinos coherently scattering off nuclei can produce similar events as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The calculated count rate for solar neutrinos in such experiments is a few events per ton-year. This count rate strongly depends on the nuclear recoil energy threshold achieved in the experiments for the WIMP search. We show that solar neutrinos can be a serious background source for direct dark matter search experiments using Ge, Ar, Xe and CaWO4 as target materials. To reach sensitivities better than approximatly 10-10 pb for the elastic WIMP nucleon spin-independent cross section in the zero-background limit, energy thresholds for nuclear recoils should be approximatly >2.05 keV for CaWO4, >4.91 keV for Ge, >2.89 keV for Xe, and >8.62 keV for Ar as target material. Next-generation experiments should not only strive for a reduction of the present energy thresholds but mainly focus on an increase of the target mass. Atmospheric neutrinos limit the achievable sensitivity for the background-free direct dark matter search to approximatly >10-12 pb.