Sensitivity plots for WIMP direct detection using the annual modulation signature
arXiv:hep-ph/9912394 · doi:10.1016/S0927-6505(00)00124-9
Abstract
Annual modulation due to the Earth's motion around the Sun is a well known signature of the expected WIMP signal induced in a solid state underground detector. In the present letter we discuss the prospects of this technique on statistical grounds, introducing annual-modulation sensitivity plots for the WIMP-nucleon scalar cross section for different materials and experimental conditions. The highest sensitivity to modulation is found in the WIMP mass interval 10 GeV< m_W < 130 GeV, the actual upper limit depending from the choice of the astrophysical parameters, while the lowest values of the explorable WIMP-nucleon elastic cross-sections fall in most cases within one order of magnitude of the sensitivities of present direct detection WIMP searches.
24 pages, ReVTeX, 9 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physics