Taking Halo-Independent Dark Matter Methods Out of the Bin

Abstract

We develop a new halo-independent strategy for analyzing emerging DM hints, utilizing the method of extended maximum likelihood. This approach does not require the binning of events, making it uniquely suited to the analysis of emerging DM direct detection hints. It determines a preferred envelope, at a given confidence level, for the DM velocity integral which best fits the data using all available information and can be used even in the case of a single anomalous scattering event. All of the halo-independent information from a direct detection result may then be presented in a single plot, allowing simple comparisons between multiple experiments. This results in the halo-independent analogue of the usual mass and cross-section plots found in typical direct detection analyses, where limit curves may be compared with best-fit regions in halo-space. The method is straightforward to implement, using already-established techniques, and its utility is demonstrated through the first unbinned halo-independent comparison of the three anomalous events observed in the CDMS-Si detector with recent limits from the LUX experiment.

18 pages, 3 figures. v2 updated to match published version

References in corpus (4)

• New results from DAMA/LIBRA
• The Astrophysical Uncertainties Of Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiments
• Exothermic Dark Matter
• Interpreting Dark Matter Direct Detection Independently of the Local Velocity and Density Distribution

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Axion astronomy with microwave cavity experiments
• The Relic Neutralino Surface at a 100 TeV collider
• Quantifying (dis)agreement between direct detection experiments in a halo-independent way
• On the Direct Detection of Dark Matter Annihilation
• Halo Independent Direct Detection of Momentum-Dependent Dark Matter
• Studying generalised dark matter interactions with extended halo-independent methods
• What is the probability that direct detection experiments have observed Dark Matter?
• Reconstructing the three-dimensional local dark matter velocity distribution
• Assessing Compatibility of Direct Detection Data: Halo-Independent Global Likelihood Analyses
• Dark matter substructures affect dark matter-electron scattering in xenon-based direct detection experiments
• Discretising the velocity distribution for directional dark matter experiments
• Halo-independence with quantified maximum entropy at DAMA/LIBRA
• Halo-Independent Dark Matter Electron Scattering Analysis with In-Medium Effects
• Halo-independent bounds on the non-relativistic effective theory of WIMP-nucleon scattering from direct detection and neutrino observations
• A halo-independent lower bound on the dark matter capture rate in the Sun from a direct detection signal
• Update on the Halo-Independent Comparison of Direct Dark Matter Detection Data
• Halo-independent bounds on Inelastic Dark Matter
• AMIDAS-II: Upgrade of the AMIDAS Package and Website for Direct Dark Matter Detection Experiments and Phenomenology
• Sensitivity of WIMP bounds on the velocity distribution in the limit of a massless mediator
• Extracting Halo Independent Information from Dark Matter Electron Scattering Data
• Explaining DAMA with proton-philic spin-dependent inelastic Dark Matter (pSIDM): a frequentist analysis
• Halo-Independent analysis of direct dark matter detection data for any WIMP interaction