Studying generalised dark matter interactions with extended halo-independent methods

Abstract

The interpretation of dark matter direct detection experiments is complicated by the fact that neither the astrophysical distribution of dark matter nor the properties of its particle physics interactions with nuclei are known in detail. To address both of these issues in a very general way we develop a new framework that combines the full formalism of non-relativistic effective interactions with state-of-the-art halo-independent methods. This approach makes it possible to analyse direct detection experiments for arbitrary dark matter interactions and quantify the goodness-of-fit independent of astrophysical uncertainties. We employ this method in order to demonstrate that the degeneracy between astrophysical uncertainties and particle physics unknowns is not complete. Certain models can be distinguished in a halo-independent way using a single ton-scale experiment based on liquid xenon, while other models are indistinguishable with a single experiment but can be separated using combined information from several target elements.

28 pages + appendices, 10 figures, v2: matches version published in JCAP

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Signatures of Earth-scattering in the direct detection of Dark Matter
• Axion astronomy with microwave cavity experiments
• Exploring light mediators with low-threshold direct detection experiments
• Charming Dark Matter
• Reconstructing the three-dimensional local dark matter velocity distribution
• WIMP capture and annihilation in the Earth in effective theories
• WIMP capture by the Sun in the effective theory of dark matter self-interactions
• Halo-independent bounds on Inelastic Dark Matter