DAMA and WIMP dark matter
Abstract
We study whether spin-independent scattering of weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with nuclei can account for the annual modulation signal reported by DAMA. We consider both elastic and inelastic scattering processes. We find that there is a region of WIMP parameter space which can simultaneously accommodate DAMA and the null results of CDMS, CRESST, and XENON. This region corresponds to an ordinary, elastically-scattering WIMP with a standard Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, a mass 3lesssimmDMlesssim8, and a spin-independent cross section with nucleons 3 × 10-412lesssimσpSIlesssim5 × 10-392. This new region of parameter space depends crucially on the effect of channeling on the energy threshold for WIMP detection in the DAMA experiment; without the inclusion of this effect, the DAMA allowed region is essentially closed by null experiments. Such low-mass WIMPs arise in many theories of Beyond the Standard Model physics, from minimal extensions of the MSSM to solutions of the baryon-dark matter coincidence problem. We find that inelastic scattering channels do not open up a significant parameter region consistent with all experimental results. Future experiments with low energy thresholds for detecting nuclear recoils, such as CDMSII-Si and those utilizing ultra-low energy germanium detectors, will be able to probe the DAMA region of parameter space.
- Publication:
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Journal of High Energy Physics
- Pub Date:
- September 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1088/1126-6708/2008/09/047
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0806.3989
- Bibcode:
- 2008JHEP...09..047P
- Keywords:
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- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- Astrophysics;
- High Energy Physics - Experiment
- E-Print:
- 19 pages, 10 figures. References and discussion added