The Scientific Reach of Multi-Ton Scale Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiments

Abstract

The next generation of large scale WIMP direct detection experiments have the potential to go beyond the discovery phase and reveal detailed information about both the particle physics and astrophysics of dark matter. We report here on early results arising from the development of a detailed numerical code modeling the proposed DARWIN detector, involving both liquid argon and xenon targets. We incorporate realistic detector physics, particle physics and astrophysical uncertainties and demonstrate to what extent two targets with similar sensitivities can remove various degeneracies and allow a determination of dark matter cross sections and masses while also probing rough aspects of the dark matter phase space distribution. We find that, even assuming dominance of spin-independent scattering, multi-ton scale experiments still have degeneracies that depend sensitively on the dark matter mass, and on the possibility of isospin violation and inelasticity in interactions. We find that these experiments are best able to discriminate dark matter properties for dark matter masses less than around 200 GeV. In addition, and somewhat surprisingly, the use of two targets gives only a small improvement (aside from the advantage of different systematics associated with any claimed signal) in the ability to pin down dark matter parameters when compared with one target of larger exposure.

23 pages; updated to match PRD version

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• Dark Matter Results from 225 Live Days of XENON100 Data
• First results from a Dark Matter search with liquid Argon at 87 K in the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory
• The Astrophysical Uncertainties Of Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiments
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• SUSY under siege from direct and indirect WIMP detection experiments
• No $\nu$ floors: Effective field theory treatment of the neutrino background in direct dark matter detection experiments
• The impact of the phase-space density on the indirect detection of dark matter
• Dark matter, light mediators, and the neutrino floor
• Is the effect of the Sun's gravitational potential on dark matter particles observable?
• Reconstructing WIMP properties through an interplay of signal measurements in direct detection, Fermi-LAT, and CTA searches for dark matter
• Dark Matter Model or Mass, but Not Both: Assessing Near-Future Direct Searches with Benchmark-free Forecasting
• Prospects for Distinguishing Dark Matter Models Using Annual Modulation
• Thermal dark matter implies new physics not far above the weak scale
• Towards understanding thermal history of the Universe through direct and indirect detection of dark matter
• Effects of Threshold Energy on Reconstructions of Properties of Low-Mass WIMPs in Direct Dark Matter Detection Experiments