Inelastic Dark Matter in Light of DAMA/LIBRA

Abstract

Inelastic dark matter, in which WIMP-nucleus scatterings occur through a transition to an excited WIMP state ~ 100 keV above the ground state, provides a compelling explanation of the DAMA annual modulation signal. We demonstrate that the relative sensitivities of various dark matter direct detection experiments are modified such that the DAMA annual modulation signal can be reconciled with the absence of a reported signal at CDMS-Soudan, XENON10, ZEPLIN, CRESST, and KIMS for inelastic WIMPs with masses O(100 GeV). We review the status of these experiments, and make predictions for upcoming ones. In particular, we note that inelastic dark matter leads to highly suppressed signals at low energy, with most events typically occurring between 20 to 45 keV (unquenched) at xenon and iodine experiments, and generally no events at low (~ 10 keV) energies. Suppressing the background in this high energy region is essential to testing this scenario. The recent CRESST data suggest seven observed tungsten events, which is consistent with expectations from this model. If the tungsten signal persists at future CRESST runs, it would provide compelling evidence for inelastic dark matter, while its absence should exclude it.

27 pages, 17 figures, minor revisions

References in corpus (5)

• First results from DAMA/LIBRA and the combined results with DAMA/NaI
• First limits on WIMP nuclear recoil signals in ZEPLIN-II: a two phase xenon detector for dark matter detection
• Interpreting the recent results on direct search for dark matter particles in terms of relic neutralino
• Mirror dark matter and the new DAMA/LIBRA results: A simple explanation for a beautiful experiment
• DAMA and WIMP dark matter

Cited by in corpus (17)

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• Direct Detection of Multi-component Secluded WIMPs
• Dipolar Dark Matter
• Nonabelian dark matter: models and constraints
• Using the Energy Spectrum at DAMA/LIBRA to Probe Light Dark Matter
• Capture of Inelastic Dark Matter in the Sun
• Compatibility of DAMA/LIBRA dark matter detection with other searches in light of new Galactic rotation velocity measurements
• PAMELA, DAMA, INTEGRAL and Signatures of Metastable Excited WIMPs
• Search for Dark Matter with CRESST
• TASI 2008 Lectures on Dark Matter
• Search for Dark Matter
• Muon Fluxes From Dark Matter Annihilation
• Pseudomoduli Dark Matter
• Some Aspects of New CDM Models and CDM Detection Methods