2014/01/31 by Mads T. Frandsen, Ian M. Shoemaker
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Excited state #Inelastic scattering #Interpretation (philosophy) #Nuclear physics #Optics #Particle Detector Development and Performance #Particle physics #Photon #Physics #Scattering #astro-ph.CO #hep-ex #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.89.051701
published as Phys. Rev. D 89, 051701 (2014) · 10 pages, 3 figures; updated to match PRD version
arxiv created 2014/02/21 · openalex publication_date 2014/03/04 · arxiv updated 2014/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study dark matter that inelastically scatters and deexcites in direct detection experiments, as an interpretation of the CDMS-Si events in light of the recent LUX data. The constraints from LUX and XENON10 require the mass splitting between the DM excited and deexcited states to be |\ensuremathδ|\ensuremath\gtrsim50 keV. At the same time, the CDMS-Si data themselves do not allow for a consistent DM interpretation for mass splittings larger than |\ensuremathδ|\ensuremath∼200 keV. We find that a low-threshold analysis will be needed to rule out this interpretation of the CDMS-Si events. In a simple model with a kinetically mixed dark photon, we show that the CDMS-Si rate and the thermal relic abundance can both be accommodated.