Magnetic inelastic dark matter: Directional signals without a directional detector

Journal Article · Fri Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.83.083510· OSTI ID:21541451

Tongyan, Lin ^[1]; Finkbeiner, Douglas P ^[1]

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1. Physics Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 (United States)

The magnetic inelastic dark matter (MiDM) model, in which dark matter inelastically scatters off nuclei through a magnetic dipole interaction, has previously been shown to reconcile the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal with null results from other experiments. In this work, we explore the unique directional detection signature of MiDM. After the dark matter scatters into its excited state, it decays with a lifetime of order 1 {mu}s and emits a photon with energy {approx}100 keV. Both the nuclear recoil and the corresponding emitted photon can be detected by studying delayed coincidence events. The recoil track and velocity of the excited state can be reconstructed from the nuclear interaction vertex and the photon event vertex. The angular distribution of the WIMP recoil tracks is sharply peaked and modulates daily. It is therefore possible to observe the directional modulation of WIMP-nucleon scattering without a large-volume gaseous directional detection experiment. Furthermore, current experiments such as XENON100 can immediately measure this directional modulation and constrain the MiDM parameter space with an exposure of a few thousand kg{center_dot}day.

• OSTI ID: 21541451
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 83, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.83.083510; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANGULAR DISTRIBUTION
DETECTION
EMISSION
INTERACTIONS
KEV RANGE 100-1000
LIFETIME
MAGNETIC DIPOLES
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
NUCLEI
NUCLEONS
PARTICLE DECAY
PHOTONS
SCATTERING
SIMULATION
VELOCITY
WEAK INTERACTIONS
BARYONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BOSONS
DECAY
DIPOLES
DISTRIBUTION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
HADRONS
KEV RANGE
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATTER
MULTIPOLES