Experimental identification of non-pointlike dark-matter candidates

Abstract

We show that direct dark matter detection experiments can distinguish between pointlike and non-pointlike dark-matter candidates. The shape of the nuclear recoil energy spectrum from pointlike dark-matter particles, e.g., neutralinos, is determined by the velocity distribution of dark matter in the galactic halo and by nuclear form factors. In contrast, typical cross sections of non-pointlike dark matter, for example, Q-balls, have a new form factor, which decreases rapidly with the recoil energy. Therefore, a signal from non-pointlike dark matter is expected to peak near the experimental threshold and to fall off rapidly at higher energies. Although the width of the signal is practically independent of the dark matter velocity dispersion, its height is expected to exhibit an annual modulation due to the changes in the dark matter flux.

4 pages; minor changes, references added

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Cited by in corpus (13)

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• Large-Mass Ultra-Low Noise Germanium Detectors: Performance and Applications in Neutrino and Astroparticle Physics
• Experimental constraints on a dark matter origin for the DAMA annual modulation effect
• Big Bang Synthesis of Nuclear Dark Matter
• New limits on spin-independent and spin-dependent couplings of low-mass WIMP dark matter with a germanium detector at a threshold of 220 eV
• Search for a Non-Relativistic Component in the Spectrum of Cosmic Rays at Earth
• Towards Coherent Neutrino Detection Using Low-Background Micropattern Gas Detectors
• Signatures of Large Composite Dark Matter States
• A Simple Explanation for DAMA with Moderate Channeling
• The phenomenology of nuclear scattering for a WIMP of arbitrary spin
• Can Tonne-Scale Direct Detection Experiments Discover Nuclear Dark Matter?
• Prospects of cold dark matter searches with an ultra-low-energy germanium detector
• Listening for ultra-heavy dark matter with underwater acoustic detectors