skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: DAMA confronts null searches in the effective theory of dark matter-nucleon interactions

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
 [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology,Kemigården 1, Gothenburg (Sweden)
  2. Physik-Department T30d, Technische Universität München,James-Franck-Straße, 85748 Garching (Germany)

We examine the dark matter interpretation of the modulation signal reported by the DAMA experiment from the perspective of effective field theories displaying Galilean invariance. We consider the most general effective coupling leading to the elastic scattering of a dark matter particle with spin 0 or 1/2 off a nucleon, and we analyze the compatibility of the DAMA signal with the null results from other direct detection experiments, as well as with the non-observation of a high energy neutrino flux in the direction of the Sun from dark matter annihilation. To this end, we develop a novel semi-analytical approach for comparing experimental results in the high-dimensional parameter space of the non-relativistic effective theory. Assuming the standard halo model, we find a strong tension between the dark matter interpretation of the DAMA modulation signal and the null result experiments. We also list possible ways-out of this conclusion.

Sponsoring Organization:
SCOAP3, CERN, Geneva (Switzerland)
OSTI ID:
22572080
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 05; Other Information: PUBLISHER-ID: JCAP05(2016)039; OAI: oai:repo.scoap3.org:15646; cc-by Article funded by SCOAP3. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English