Neutrino Coherent Scattering Rates at Direct Dark Matter Detectors

2009/03/31 by Louis E. Strigari · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.HE #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/11/10/105011

published as New J.Phys.11:105011,2009

arxiv created 2009/10/21 · arxiv updated 2014/11/18

Abstract

Neutrino-induced recoil events may constitute a background to direct dark matter searches, particularly for those detectors that strive to reach the ton-scale and beyond. This paper discusses the expected neutrino-induced background spectrum due to several of the most important sources, including solar, atmospheric, and diffuse supernova neutrinos. The largest rate arises from ⁸B produced solar neutrinos, providing upwards of ∼ 10³ events per ton-year over all recoil energies for the heaviest nuclear targets. However the majority of these ⁸B events are expected to be below the recoil threshold of modern detectors. The remaining neutrino sources are found to constitute a background to the WIMP-induced recoil rate only if the WIMP-nucleon cross section is less than 10^-12 pb. Finally the sensitivity to diffuse supernova neutrino flux for non-electron neutrino flavors is discussed, and projected flux limits are compared with existing flux limits.

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