One Model Explains DAMA/LIBRA, CoGENT, CDMS, and XENON

Abstract

Many experiments seek dark matter by detecting relatively low energy nuclear recoils. Yet since events from ordinary physics with energies in the 1-100 KeV range are commonplace, all claims of signals or their absence hinge on exhaustive calibrations and background rejection. We document many curious and consistent discrepancies between the backgrounds which neutrons can produce versus the picture of neutrons and claims of neutron calibration found in dark matter literature. Much of the actual physics of neutrons is either under-recognized or under-reported, opening up new interpretations of current data. All signals seen so far, including those presented tentatively such as CoGENT, or the bold claims and time dependence of DAMA/LIBRA, appear to be consistent with neutron-induced backgrounds. At the same time it is the burden of proof of experimental groups to support their claims no possible background could matter, not ours. The existing hypotheses about backgrounds stated by experiments, accepted at face value and as published, make possible a variety of neutron-induced events to be registered as dark matter signals.

References in corpus (1)

• Experimental constraints on a dark matter origin for the DAMA annual modulation effect

Cited by in corpus (19)

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• Lowering the energy threshold in COSINE-100 dark matter searches
• Constraints on Light WIMP candidates from the Isotropic Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission
• The Past and Future of Light Dark Matter Direct Detection
• GEM-based TPC with CCD Imaging for Directional Dark Matter Detection
• The Gran Sasso muon puzzle
• A testable conventional hypothesis for the DAMA-LIBRA annual modulation
• DAMA vs. the annually modulated muon background
• The environmental monitoring system at the COSINE-100 experiment
• Particle Dark Matter in DAMA/LIBRA
• Seasonal Modulations of the Underground Cosmic-Ray Muon Energy
• Contamination of Dark Matter Experiments from Atmospheric Magnetic Dipoles
• Monthly Modulation in Dark Matter Direct-Detection Experiments
• Comparison of DAMA/LIBRA and DM ICE Results using Information Theory to Rule out Dark Matter Claims
• Recent results in the search for dark matter with noble liquid detectors
• On the Cosmic Ray Muon Hypothesis for DAMA
• Theoretical expectations for dark matter detection at the LHC