Directional dark matter detection beyond the neutrino bound

2014/06/30 by Philipp Grothaus, Malcolm Fairbairn, J. Monroe +1 · 87 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cosmology #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark energy #Dark matter #Event (particle physics) #Light dark matter #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino oscillation #Nuclear physics #Optics #Particle physics #Physics #Recoil #Scalar field dark matter #Scattering #Solar neutrino #Supernova #WIMP #Weakly interacting massive particles #astro-ph.CO #hep-ex #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.90.055018

published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 90(5) (American Physical Society) · matches the published version, figure 4 updated plus extended discussion about neutrino flux uncertainties and detector resolutions, 13 pages, 11 figures

openalex publication_date 2014/09/19 · arxiv created 2014/09/30 · arxiv updated 2014/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

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^\ensuremath-46--10^\ensuremath-48 cm², 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^\ensuremath-48 cm². Direction-sensitive detectors have the potential to study dark matter beyond the neutrino bound by fitting event distributions in multiple dimensions: recoil kinetic energy, recoil track angle with respect to the sun, and event time. This work quantitatively explores the impact of direction sensitivity on the neutrino bound in dark matter direct detection.

Citations

• Review of mathematics, numerical factors, and corrections for dark matter experiments based on elastic nuclear recoil
• First results from the LUX dark matter experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility
• MIMAC: A micro-tpc matrix for directional detection of dark matter
• Solar and atmospheric neutrinos: Background sources for the direct dark matter searches
• The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background
• First‐Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Measurement of the Total Active 8B Solar Neutrino Flux at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory with Enhanced Neutral Current Sensitivity
• The Weak Neutral Current and its Effects in Stellar Collapse
• The Chemical Composition of the Sun

Cited by

• Neutrino non-standard interactions: A status report
• Readout strategies for directional dark matter detection beyond the neutrino background
• Readout technologies for directional WIMP Dark Matter detection

Related

• Theoretical prospects for directional WIMP detection
• Solar and Atmospheric Neutrinos: Limitations for Direct Dark Matter Searches
• Solar and atmospheric neutrinos: Background sources for the direct dark matter searches
• The neutrino roof: Single-scatter ceilings in dark matter direct detection
• Direct Detection Constraints on Dark Matter Event Rates in Neutrino Telescopes, and Collider Implications